Tonight, SpaceX will attempt to launch a 60 satellites into space, as part of its Starlink mission.
The launch will see a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, before releasing the satellites into orbit.
SpaceX explained: “The Starlink satellites will deploy in an elliptical orbit approximately 15 minutes after liftoff.
“Prior to orbit raise, SpaceX engineers will conduct data reviews to ensure all Starlink satellites are operating as intended.
“Once the checkouts are complete, the satellites will then use their onboard ion thrusters to move into their intended orbits and operational altitude of 550 km.”
SpaceX is targeting a launch time of 21:25 EDT (02:25 BST) tonight.
While this isn’t the most social hour for space fans in the UK, SpaceX is streaming the launch live on its YouTube channel, so you can tune in here.
This is the eighth batch of Starlink satellites, bringing the total number in orbit to nearly 500.
Elon Musk hopes the satellites will bring low-cost internet to remote areas on Earth.
Starlink explained: “With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.”
(Image: SpaceX)
However, several astronomers have raised concerns that one of the satellites could pass in front of a telescope and obscure an image.
In a recent study, published in arXiv, researchers led by Stefano Gallozzi, wrote: “Depending on their altitude and surface reflectivity, their contribution to the sky brightness is not negligible for professional ground based observations.
“With the huge amount of about 50,000 new artificial satellites for telecommunications planned to be launched in Medium and Low Earth Orbit, the mean density of artificial objects will be of >1 satellite for square sky degree; this will inevitably harm professional astronomical images.”
While the new batch of satellites won’t be visible from the UK tonight, Brits will have several opportunities to see the Starlink satellites from the UK this week.
According to Find Starlink, the satellites will be visible from the UK at:
12:39am, 4 Jun 2020
4:04am, 4 Jun 2020
3:06am, 5 Jun 2020
12:12am, 6 Jun 2020
2:08am, 6 Jun 2020
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