Starlink launches in December 2022
Starlink Group 2-4: DATE AND TIME TBD
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg SFC, California
Starlink Group 2-2: DATE AND TIME TBD
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida
Starlink Group 4-37: DATE AND TIME TBD
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida
Starlink Group 5-1: DATE AND TIME TBD
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida
You’ll be able to watch above or go on to SpaceX’s YouTube channel for a livestream of the launch. Livestreams sometimes start about 5 minutes earlier than liftoff.
After launch, search for a practice of lights
Following each Starlink launch, the web buzzes with folks asking:
What’s that lengthy line of lights within the sky that appears like a practice?
What you’re seeing is the Starlink satellites shifting into the next orbit. You’ll be able to examine to see if they may move over your space utilizing the Find Starlink website.
When you reside close to the launch websites on the east and west coasts of america, you might also see the rocket ascending into the sky, abandoning a billowing glow. This sight additionally causes folks to clamor with questions. Within the picture under, you possibly can see what a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch appears like.
Rising numbers amid controversy
Based on Wikipedia, as of September 2022, Starlink consists of over 3,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit that talk with designated floor transceivers. They supply web entry to over 500,000 subscribers as of June 2022.
Love ’em or hate ’em, these Starlink satellites are a part of SpaceX’s imaginative and prescient for a worldwide web communication satellite constellation. They ship high-speed web service worldwide, primarily to places the place ground-based web is unreliable, unavailable, or costly. The non-public firm is well-known for launching batches back-to-back, a number of instances a month, frequently lofting 60 satellites at a time. And SpaceX plans to construct as much as maybe as many as 30,000 finally.
Most thought it was thrilling to see the primary few Starlink satellites touring collectively within the night time sky. However then extra have been launched, after which extra. And astronomers started to fret.
Learn extra concerning the concern of satellites and astronomy in our article How satellites harm astronomy: what’s being done.
Backside line: SpaceX has 4 Starlink launches deliberate for the month of December 2022.
Read more from EarthSky: Starlink satellites can look like a plume or train of light
