SpaceX Continues Crucial Starlink Launches To Expand Network Capacity

SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellite internet satellites earlier today from the Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch was SpaceX's 31st mission for the year and its 230th overall mission to date. It came days after the firm launched another batch of the satellites from the Vandenberg Space Force base in California. SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation is the largest of its kind, and each launch adds significant capacity to the network, which has seen tremendous popularity amongst users in North America and worldwide.

SpaceX Continues To Build Starlink Network Capacity & Add Satellites As Stop Gap Measure Until Starship Is Operational

While today's mission appeared to be business as usual at SpaceX, it was actually one of the heaviest launches conducted by the Falcon 9. SpaceX's Starlink satellites have significantly evolved since the firm first started to launch them and are pretty different from the first spacecraft sent to orbit.

These changes have also constrained the Falcon 9's ability to launch as many satellites as it could before, and this was evident in today's launch. The mission took 56 Starlink satellites to orbit, with the payload weighing more than 17 tons and nearing the full capacity of the Falcon 9 rocket. These heavier launches have typically been directed to fill out the fifth shell of the Starlink satellites. This shell is part of the Starlink Gen2 constellation, but as it waits for Starship's operational status, SpaceX has already started to populate the orbits with the relatively higher V1.5 satellites.

Today's launch was at an orbital inclination of 43 degrees. An inclination, for the uninitiated, is the angle that a satellite's path makes with the equator of the body it is orbiting. A 180 degree orbit follows the equatorial path, and a ninety degree orbit covers a planet's polar (top and bottom) regions.

The ground path of a satellite flying at 43 degree inclination. Image: Satellite ground track visualizer by Jake Low

The 43 degree inclination is for the fifth shell of Starlink satellites, and the orbital parameters are part of SpaceX'x Gen2 approval by the FCC. Shell 5 also sees SpaceX launch some of the heaviest payloads on the Falcon 9, and today's launch was the ninth launch in this shell. Seven of the nine launched have placed 56 satellites into orbit, and these launches are the heaviest payloads flown by the Falcon 9 to date. '

The fifth shell launches are crucial for SpaceX as they expand STarlink's coverage in the southern hemisphere and the lower latitude Western regions of the U.S. Starlink has more than 1.5 million subscribers, leading to lower speeds for users all around. However, this trend has started to reverse, with the latest internet speed test data showing that users in the U.S. saw faster speeds in Q1 2023 over Q4 2022. However, those in Mexico suffered from large drops, and shell five launches should help with this congestion.

SpaceX reused a Falcon 9 booster for the 11th time today and the satellites entered their parking orbit at 150 kilometers. SpaceX's mission profile places the satellites at a lower orbit to test them and easily deorbit any malfunctioning spacecraft. They then raise their oribt over next month or so before reaching the final destination. Each Starlink launch adds more than a terabit per second (Tbps) of capacity to the satellite constellation.

Written by Ramish Zafar