ST. GEORGE — A Falcon 9 rocket is set to blast off Sunday morning carrying new satellites into orbit that will bring internet access to underserved areas of the world.
On Sunday, SpaceX will launch a rocket carrying a payload of 60 satellites that will fall into orbit above Earth, where they join more than 2,000 satellites launched by the company since March 2019. That is when the first set of 60 satellites made their debut in low-earth orbit – which is roughly 340 miles above the planet’s surface.
The mission payload scheduled for Sunday’s launch is part of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network and the rocket is scheduled to launch at 9:13 a.m. MST, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, according to the SpaceX launch manifest.
The company’s overall goal is to create a network that will help provide reliable and affordable internet services to areas not yet connected around the globe.
The satellites will be loaded onto a Falcon 9 rocket, the world’s first orbital rocket that is a reusable rocket, which allows the company to reuse the most expensive components. In fact, SpaceX is the only company on the planet with a landing, reusable rocket capable of delivering payload after payload into orbit, which in turn drives costs down and makes the operation more sustainable.
After years of research and development, in 2020 SpaceX secured more than $885 million in grant money from the Federal Communications Commission. This funding enabled the company to accelerate its efforts. So far, roughly 2,000 functional satellites are now circling the globe, thanks to a series of successful launches that have taken place over the past three years.
Once the first-stage separation takes place, efforts to recover the main rocket booster engine will begin using using a drone ship that will be stationed in the Atlantic ocean.
Failed mission in the wake of a geomagnetic storm
The upcoming launch comes in the wake of a doomed mission that took off on Feb. 3, when a rocket carrying 40 satellites blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The following day, a geomagnetic storm above Earth caused a slight increase in the density of the atmosphere as it warmed up, which in turn increased drag on the satellites, slowing them down which left most of them doomed as they tumbled out of the sky, a SpaceX update said.
That increase in drag also prevented the payload from initiating orbit-raising maneuvers, which caused the fleet of satellites to reenter Earth’s atmosphere where, by design, their fate was sealed as they burned up before hitting Earth.
Trouble afoot?
Since the start of the space age, more than 11,300 satellites have been launched, out of which only 7,300 are in the space, while the rest have either been burnt up in the atmosphere or have returned to Earth in the form of debris, much like the recent Chinese Long March 5C rocket that dived into the Indian Ocean, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
With tens of thousands of new satellites approved for launch, and no laws about orbit crowding, right-of-way or space cleanup, the stage is set for the disastrous possibility of Kessler Syndrome, a runaway cascade of debris that could destroy a majority of satellites now orbiting the Earth and can even prevent future launches for decades, the European Space Agency says.
Moreover, a majority of the satellites now are not launched by governments, but instead, are conducted by private companies, and most of the debris remains abandoned in orbit, since there is little in the way of regulations governing the clogged highways above Earth – leaving thousands of abandoned objects circling above – ranging in size from a bolt to a bus-sized satellite that died long ago.
Satellites and the disappearance of dark skies
Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites have been the topic of intense debate, with thousands of these objects hovering launched during what some believe is an aggressive campaign. As such, the International Astronomical Union is calling for the pristine night sky to be protected by the United Nations as astronomers continue to struggle with their exposures that are destroyed by the constant barrage of satellites.
In 2019, shortly after the deployment of Starlink’s first payload of satellites, the International Astronomical Union released a statement that warned of unforeseen consequences not only for stargazing but also for the potential impact on nocturnal wildlife,, according to CNET.
“We do not yet understand the impact of thousands of these visible satellites scattered across the night sky and despite their good intentions, these satellite constellations may threaten both,” the statement reads.
Science.org says as more and more satellites blasted off to make the trek around Earth, sky gazers began to see “a string of glinting pearls as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper.”
The satellites were built to beam down broadband internet to every corner of the globe, but the project has also contributed to an industry forecast stating there will be more than 100,000 satellites in orbit by the end of the 2020s.
In the best stargazing conditions, the human eye can see about 3000 twinkling stars overhead, but if the satellites projected end up as bright as the first batch launched, they would fill future summer nights with a comparable number of bright dots.
New research shows that even when satellites are invisible to the naked eye, they can significantly brighten the background sky, and Starling has begun testing a variety of new designs intended to reduce the brightness and visibility of its satellites, including a prototype dubbed “DarkSat” satellite that was tested in 2020 and included a special, nonreflective coating. Later that year SpaceX launched a “VisorSat” satellite that features a special sunshade visor. By the end of the year all of the satellites launched were equipped with visors.
Researchers still contend that long-term observation campaigns should be carried out at dark sites to understand how satellite mega-constellations will affect not only further studies, but also the public’s ability to gaze upon the spray of astronomical wonders scattered across the heavens.
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