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Starlink 3

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Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Communications

Low Earth Orbit Space Launch Complex 40 Cape Canaveral, FL, USA Probability: 80%
B1051 - Of Course I Still Love You

Second operational Starlink payload of 2020 and third overall. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle will carry a batch of 60 Starlink satellites that will be insterted in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 290 km (180 mi) and an inclination of 53°. They will then split into three orbital planes and raise their orbits to reach an operational altitude of 550 km (342 mi). The Starlink LEO constellation aims to provide worldwide affordable satellite internet access. 182 satellites (120 operational) have been deployed so far, the goal scheduled for the mid-2020s being 12,000 satellites in orbit, with a possible later extension to 42,000. The booster for this launch will be B1051, a Block 5 generation core which previously flew on SpaceX's Demonstration Mission 1 (first Crew Dragon test flight) and launched the Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT Constellation.

Infographic

Geoff Barrett is an independent graphic artist that creates launch infographics for space flight events.

Falcon 9

Family: Falcon
Configuration: Block 5

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

See Falcon Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    1
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    549 T
  • Thrust
    7607 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
    Falcon
  • Variant
    Block 5
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 5
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $52000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8300 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1051

Status: Expended


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: March 2, 2019
Last Flight: November 12, 2022
Flights: 14
Landings Attempted: 13
Landings Successful: 13
Previous B1051 Flights

Landing Information

B1051 will attempt to land on an ASDS OCISLY after the Starlink 3 launch.

Result: Successful Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship landing at Of Course I Still Love You.

SpaceX

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CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 225 Failures: 9 Pending: 93

Agency Type: Commercial

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

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Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Space Launch Complex 40


Long March 4C
Success
1 day, 13 hours ago
Yaogan 34-04
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan, People's Republic of China

Officially described as an optical remote-sensing satellite built by SAST.


Long March 2D
Success
2 days, 8 hours ago
PIESAT-1 x 4
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for PIESAT (1 main, 3 sub-satellites), operating in tandem using very long baseline in…


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 23 hours ago
Starlink Group 5-10
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 56 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Soyuz 2-1v
Success
2 days, 23 hours ago
Kosmos 2568 (EO MKA-4)
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Russian reconnaissance satellite of unknown purposes, possibly in the same series as Kosmos 2551, 2555 and 2560.


Shavit-2
Success
3 days, 20 hours ago
Ofek-13
Unknown Pad - Palmachim Airbase, State of Israel

Ofek is a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites. Ofek-13 is an Israeli SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) reconnaissance satellite that combines hi…


LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
Success
6 days, 16 hours ago
OneWeb 18
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Sriharikota, Republic of India

A batch of 36 satellites for the OneWeb satellite constellation, which is intended to provide global Internet broadband service for individual consum…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 5-5
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 56 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Electron
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
The Beat Goes On
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Onenui Station, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Payload consists of 2 second generation Earth-imaging satellites for BlackSky. They are part of a constellation of 60 Low Earth Orbit Earth imagin…


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
Kosmos 2567 (Bars-M No. 4)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Bars-M is the second incarnation of the Bars project, which was started in the mid 1990ies to develop a success…


Terran 1
Failure
1 week, 2 days ago
Good Luck, Have Fun (Maiden Flight)
Launch Complex 16 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Maiden launch of the Terran 1 rocket developed by Relativity Space.