Another 24 Starlink satellites joined the company’s growing broadband internet constellation in low Earth orbit on Tuesday, helping to deliver a further fiscal leap compared to the steep financial losses suffered by the original Iridium, Globalstar and Teledesic constellations had suffered in recent decades.
“We’re going to make some money this year with Starlink. We’ve made quarters with Starlink in the past,” SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said during a Nov. 15 presentation at the Baron Investment Conference in New York City.
“First of all, chip technology has developed so much that it’s now easier to be successful. I also appreciate my team: an extraordinary team of engineers and technicians and people who build the satellites and incredible technology really,” Shotwell told the audience. .
“And then we have our own launch, so that also helps a little bit to ensure that our low Earth orbit system is successful,” she said.
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SpaceX crews launched the 24 Starlink satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 11:41 PM EST from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Starlink 6-76 mission was initially scheduled to depart early Tuesday morning, but the mission was scrapped without public explanation.
The Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron had estimated the chance of favorable launch weather at more than 95% Tuesday evening. There were no significant cloud cover on the entire Florida peninsula at takeoff, according to National Weather Service radar.
As of Monday morning, the Starlink constellation had 6,690 functioning satellites, according to statistics compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
SpaceX will launch NASA’s Dragonfly helicopter to Saturn’s moon
Artist’s concept of Dragonfly hovering above the dunes of Saturn’s moon Titan.
On Monday, NASA officials announced that the agency’s Dragonfly rotorcraft lander, bound for Saturn’s moon Titan, will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
Launch contract value: approximately $256.6 million. The Dragonfly mission is expected to launch from pad 39A at KSC in July 2028.
“Dragonfly focuses on a new approach to planetary exploration, using a helicopter lander to travel between and sample various locations on Saturn’s largest moon,” according to a NASA press release.
“With contributions from partners around the world, Dragonfly’s science payload will characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment, investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry on Titan, where carbon-rich material and liquid water may have mixed over an extended period, and search for chemical indications of whether water-based or hydrocarbon-based life once existed on Saturn’s moon,” the press release said.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and KSC, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neale is a space reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX to launch 24 Starlink satellites during Florida launch on Tuesday
