A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rolls out of the hangar at pad 39A in this file photo. Credit: SpaceX
Forecasters predict a 60 percent chance of favorable weather for launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to carry more Starlink broadband satellites into orbit.
The launch — set for 2:19 p.m. EDT (1819 GMT) Thursday — will add 60 more Starlink satellites to SpaceX’s ever-growing broadband network. SpaceX has launched more than 700 Starlink satellites to date, making the company the owner of the largest fleet of spacecraft in orbit.
Like the previous Starlink launches, a 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket head northeast from Florida’s Space Coast with 1.7 million pounds of thrust from nine Merlin main engines, then shed its first stage booster about two-and-a-half minutes into the flight.
A single Merlin engine on the Falcon 9’s second stage is expected to fire two times before release of the stack of Starlink satellites in a near-circular orbit between 172 miles (278 kilometers) and 162 miles (261 kilometers), with an inclination of 53 degrees, according to pre-launch estimates.
Separation of the 60 Starlink satellites from the rocket is scheduled about 61 minutes after launch.
SpaceX plans to recover the Falcon 9’s first stage aboard the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” positioned northeast of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly due east of Charleston, South Carolina. The propulsive landing of the first stage is expected around eight minutes after liftoff.
The first stage on Thursday’s launch has flown two previous times, including the launch May 30 of two NASA astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, and the July 20 launch of South Korea’s Anasis 2 military communications satellite. One half of the clamshell-like payload shroud on Thursday’s mission is also a veteran of two previous Falcon 9/Starlink launches, according SpaceX.
SpaceX also plans to retrieve the payload fairing after Thursday’s launch. The two halves of the shroud are designed to descend under parachutes.
The mission Thursday will mark the 13th launch of Starlink satellites since SpaceX kicked off deployment of the network in May 2019. SpaceX’s most recent launch Sept. 3 carried up the previous 60 Starlink satellites.
The official launch weather forecast issued Wednesday by the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral calls for a 60 percent chance of good conditions for liftoff of the Falcon 9 Thursday. The primary weather concerns Thursday will be with cumulus and anvil clouds associated with afternoon thunderstorms.
If the launch is delayed to Friday, there’s a 40 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions in the forecast.
SpaceX eventually plans to launch thousands of Starlink satellites, but the first tranche of Starlinks will number 1,440 spacecraft, according to Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink and commercial sales.
“The total global constellation we’re targeting is 1,440 satellites, of which a good number of those are already on orbit,” Hofeller said.
Some of the satellites, including those on the first Starlink launch last May, are being moved to lower altitudes and deorbited.
Each flat-panel Starlink satellite weighs about a quarter-ton, and they are built at a SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington, near Seattle. Extending on SpaceX’s penchant for building hardware in-house, the aerospace company is manufacturing its own Starlink satellites, user terminals and ground stations.
SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation is already the largest fleet of satellites in the world, but hundreds more will be launched in the coming months.
Hofeller said last month that SpaceX is building six Starlink spacecraft per day, and plans to launch Starlink missions at intervals of every two to three weeks until completing the initial Starlink network of around 1,440 satellites.
A stack of 60 Starlink satellites before a previous mission. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX has regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission to eventually operate nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites to blanket the planet with high-speed, low-latency Internet signals. SpaceX also also signaled plans to launch up to 30,000 additional Starlink satellites — beyond the 12,000 already approved — in filings with the International Telecommunication Union.
The Starlink network is one of two major development projects SpaceX is pursuing, alongside the company’s next-generation Starship super-heavy-lift rocket.
In a discussion at the ASCEND Space Science and Technology Summit last month, Hofeller said that the private beta testing is being rolled out in the Pacific Northwest. With roughly 700 satellites, the Starlink network has enough coverage to provide connectivity to users at high latitudes, but more launches are required to expand coverage to other regions.
SpaceX has asked people interested in participating in the public beta test phase to sign up on the Starlink website.
With the beta testing program now underway, SpaceX is collecting latency statistics and performing speed tests. The company says it’s pleased with the initial results.
SpaceX said earlier this month that the tests so far show the network has “super low latency” with download speeds greater than 100 megabits per second. That’s fast enough to stream multiple HD movies at once, and still have bandwidth to spare, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX has also begun testing spacecraft with inter-satellite laser links, which could eventually allow data traffic to flow through the network without going through ground relay stations. The first batch of Starlink satellites did not carry inter-satellite links
Hofeller hinted at upgraded Starlink satellites in his virtual presentation at ASCEND Space Science and Technology Summit last month
“With 1,440 satellites, that’s when we get 24/7 global coverage, and the plan is to not stop there,” Hofeller said. “We’ll continue to launch, and with each launch, we can provide more and more capacity. There’s never enough capacity. You can’t limit what your kids want to watch, and what your family wants to consume. So we’ll continue to densify the network.”
SpaceX will deorbit older Starlink satellites as upgraded spacecraft come online, according to Hofeller.
After the launch Thursday, SpaceX’s next mission is set to take off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sept. 30, when a Falcon 9 rocket will deploy the U.S. Space Force’s next GPS navigation satellite.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
