SpaceX just added another 49 satellites to its growing Starlink internet megaconstellation.A Falcon 9 rocket introduced 49 new Starlink satellites to orbit today (Feb. 3), raising off from NASAs Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on the east coast of Florida at 1:13 p.m. EST (1813 GMT). The upper phase was out of range of ground communications at that minute, however, so confirmation of deployment success isnt expected to come until an hour and 20 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX quality engineer Andy Tran stated throughout todays launch webcast.Related: SpaceXs Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photosA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 49 Starlink web satellites to orbit on Feb. 3, 2022. That stated, SpaceX has actually repeatedly stressed that it is dedicated to working with the area community to dim its satellites and has said that astronomical observations ought to not be unduly impacted by its individual satellites.The launch of Group 4-7 was originally targeted for last week however was postponed multiple times due to weather interfering with the planned launch of another SpaceX objective, which ended up lofting the Italian CSG-2 Earth-observation satellite on Monday (Jan. 31) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC.The CSG-2 launch kicked off a hectic week for SpaceX, which likewise launched the NROL-87 spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office on Wednesday (Feb. 2) from Californias Vandenberg Space Force Base.The Falcon 9s first phase wasnt the only piece of reused hardware on todays Starlink launch.
