A few hours ago 60 satellites of the Starlink constellation were launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. After just over an hour they were successfully deployed into their orbit at an altitude of about 440 kilometers all together and then started slowly disperse. This is SpaceX’s first mission to put the Starlink constellation into orbit to provide a global Internet connection coverage.

Elon Musk announced the Starlink project in January 2015 with a long-term purpose of bringing Internet connections even beyond Earth’s orbit to connect future outposts and space colonies. SpaceX developed the project on its own so it took some time for the development of the satellites but also to obtain the authorizations needed to put them into orbit.

On February 22, 2018 two satellites that were meant to test the Starlink constellation systems were put into space by SpaceX as a secondary payload during another mission. Originally called MicroSat-2a and 2b and later Tintin A and B, they were tested in a circular low-Earth orbit at an altitude of about 514 kilometers.

The constellation will consist of something like 12,000 satellites unless the plan changes of which 4,425 in the first phase and 7,518 more in the next phase. Elon Musk stated that it will take at least 6 more launches of 60 satellites each to get minimal coverage, also because he predicted that many things could go wrong in this first launch. A tweet from Musk himself shows how the 60 satellites were “packed” for launch.

First 60 @SpaceX Starlink satellites loaded into Falcon fairing. Tight fit. pic.twitter.com/gZq8gHg9uK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2019

The satellite project progressed over time, with the result that the first two prototypes built were used for ground tests, without launching them, then there was the launch of the slightly different Tintin A and B. The 60 satellites launched a few hours ago are based on what’s supposed to be the final design, however SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell stated they lacked at least one key system for inter-satellite connections.

Even if all goes well, it will take years to complete a constellation in a project divided into various phases, which could be modified, with some thousands of satellites placed in different orbits. Each of them has a relatively short life expectancy, around five years, and then they’ll use the onboard electric thrusters to be pushed into the atmosphere and disintegrate.

The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage – also known as the booster – was at its third launch, only the second time that it’s happened but it no longer makes the news already. It successfully landed for the third time, on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You”. Elon Musk announced with another tweet that SpaceX also recovered the two halves of the protective fairing that was on the top of the rocket.

Fairing halves recovered pic.twitter.com/F82LE8JlLJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2019

This is only the beginning for Starlink’s operations and in the near future competition with other operators who intend to put satellites into orbit to provide broadband Internet connections should also begin.