The Starlink space internet project will commence life on May 15 (Image: GETTY )
Mr Musk tweeted: “More details on day of launch, currently tracking to Wednesday, 6 more launches of 60 sats needed for minor coverage, 12 for moderate.” He followed up with this concerning tweet: “Much will likely go wrong on 1st mission.” The shear amount of satellites needed to extend internet coverage relayed from space to every nook and cranny on the face of the globe means design limitations favouring low weight and miniaturisation.
The photograph Musk tweeted reveals the 60 satellites flat packed into the nose of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will kick start SpaceX’s Starlink project.
A Twitter user asked Elon Musk if the satellites were flat-packed and how will they be dispensed into orbit, to which Mr Musk responded: “It is flat-packed, no dispenser.”
The satellites are the first operational units of SpaceX’s Starlink initiative, a planned mega-constellation of nearly 12,000 spacecraft that will sit in a low orbit above Earth and beam internet connectivity to the surface below.
The Federal Communications Commission
