Elon Musk’s team of engineers at SpaceX are maintaining an impressive launch cadence. On January 31st they successfully launched 49 Starlink satellites which, says Musk, will mostly help provide connectivity over higher latitudes. On February 2nd the team in Florida will launch 53 more Starlinks.

The February 2nd launch (officially Launch 5-3) will deliver 53 Starlinks. Launch timings, subject to the usual weather and technical conditions, is scheduled for 03.02 am (Florida time). This will be the third launch into a new orbital shell for SpaceX’s second-generation Starlink constellation, called Starlink Gen2.

But the commercial – fee-paying – launch cadence also continues. Later this week a Falcon 9 rocket will launch Hispasat’s Amazonas Nexus satellites. Amazonas Nexus will provide broadband connectivity to airplanes, ships, and other mobile users across the Americas, Greenland, and travel corridors across the Atlantic Ocean. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The satellite was built by Thales Alenia Space, and is based on the Spacebus NEO platform.

Other SpaceX upcoming launches include a pair of satellites for Worldview (Earth observation craft), as well as Inmarsat’s 6-F2 craft.

Later in February a Falcon 9 rocket will launch two mPOWER satellites for SES of Luxembourg (mPOWER 3 and 4). The two satellites, built by Boeing, will provide internet services over most of the populated world, building on SES’s existing O3b network.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite

Tags: spacex, starlink, Thales Alenia