Elon Musk often has very lofty plans, whether it be to bore tunnels under the roads to help ease traffic congestion, creating fully autonomous cars, or encapsulating the Earth in a blanket of satellites to help bring internet to everyone in the world. The latter effort, known as Starlink and is part of SpaceX, is expected to kick off this Thursday.
SpaceX is reported to be attempting to launch 60 of its Starlink satellites into orbit this coming Thursday. There have been multiple attempts to launch Starlink, such as last week, but was called off due to high winds. Another attempt was made but was then postponed to update its software and perform additional checks, so this would be the third time that SpaceX will be attempting to launch its satellites.
SpaceX will not be the first company to attempt to bring internet to all corners of the earth. Previously, we had seen companies such as Facebook and Google attempt similar efforts. However, the main difference with SpaceX’s Starlink is that with the use of satellites, in theory, it could cover a much larger area.
The goal is to eventually get as many as 12,000 satellites up in orbit. Musk had previously estimated that 400 satellites are the minimum needed to provide “minor” coverage, and 800 for “moderate” coverage.
Filed in . Read more about Internet, Space and Spacex. Source: space