SpaceX has established its most recent batch of Starlink satellites, growing the constellation by yet another 58 spacecraft just 10 days following its most recent Starlink launch. That brings the total amount of usable Starlink broadband net satellites on orbit to 538. SpaceX also divide the payload for this Starlink mission for the very first time, giving two of its customary Starlink payload match in order to also carry three World Skysat spacecraft on behalf of that customer.
SpaceX’s latest Starlink launch was significant not only because it brings the company closer to its objective of actually operating a consumer-facing broadband internet service, which it expects to start doing for a limited pool of consumers in the U.S. and Canada by after this year, but because these Starlink satellites transported fresh alterations designed to make them astronomer-friendly.
Starlink, due to its dimensions and the comparatively low-altitude orbit that they traverse, was criticized by night scientific observers because they pose a potentially bright distraction as they pass overhead. SpaceX introduced one Starlink satellite equipped with a new deployable sun visor it created that can block reflections of sunlight off of their antenna surfaces, and on this particular launch, every one of those 58 satellites was outfitted with this brand new mitigating technology.
