Falcon 9 launched 49 star-chain satellites with one arrow and ten arrows, and the number of satellites in the sky exceeded 2,000

The Paper's reporter Zhang Jing

At 21:02 EASTERN TIME on January 18, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flew with one stone and launched 49 "Starlink" satellites at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX has launched more than 2,000 Starlink satellites.

After the launch, Musk posted a picture on social media on the 19th, and then said that he would "soon return to the moon."

The launch was the 10th flight and landing of the Falcon 9 sub-class, and after the separation of the first and second stages, the first stage rocket landed on the unmanned barge in the Atlantic Ocean "lacking a sense of solemnity".

Prior to this, the Falcon 9 sub-stage had carried out GPS III-3 launch missions, Turkish communications satellite Turksat 5A launch missions, SpaceX's second single launch Transformer-2 mission, and 6 "Starlink" satellite launches. The two fairings of Falcon 9 have also previously performed a "Starlink" mission.

This launch is the 35th batch of SpaceX special network deployment of SpaceX satellites since the first batch of 60 "Starlink" satellites went to the sky in May 2019, and it is also the second batch of "Starlink" networking special issuance this year. Last year, SpaceX set a record of 31 falcon 9 rocket launches in a year, 17 of which were specially deployed "Starlink" satellite networking launches.

Counting the "Starlink" satellites previously carried by "carpooling", as of now, SpaceX has launched a total of 2040 "Starlink" satellites. If you count the two test satellites Microsat-2A and Microsat-2B launched in February 2018, SpaceX launched 2042 Starlink satellites.

However, according to the data disclosed by Musk on January 16, before the launch of 49 "Starlink" satellites, 1469 "Starlink" satellites are in operation, 272 are entering orbit, and the laser link communication of the satellite will soon be activated.

In the future, SpaceX intends to abandon the plan to use Falcon 9 to launch a second-generation "starlink" broadband constellation of 30,000 satellite networks, and instead use the upcoming "starship". SpaceX attorney William Wiltshire mentioned in a recent letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that SpaceX "could begin launching a second-generation system as early as March 2022."

Editor-in-Charge: Li Yuequn Photo Editor: Shen Ke