CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The private spaceflight company SpaceX will launch 58 new Starlink satellites to join its ever-growing broadband internet megaconstellation in orbit Saturday (June 13), and you can watch it live online.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Starlink mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for no earlier than 5:21 a.m. EDT (0921 GMT).
This is SpaceX’s ninth launch of the year and the ninth Starlink launch to date. SpaceX is keeping up a busy launch cadence as June is shaping up to be a four launch month. SpaceX kicked off this rapid pace with the launch of two NASA astronauts — Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken — on May 30, followed by a Starlink launch four days later on June 3. Now, with just over a week since its last launch, SpaceX will loft another batch of its internet-beaming satellites into space.
But this time, the payload will contain other passengers. As part of a rideshare agreement with the Earth-imaging company Planet, SpaceX will launch three small SkySat satellites for the California-based imaging company — a first for the Starlink program.
The rideshare means that SpaceX will only be able to launch 58 of its Starlink satellites, as opposed to the traditional 60, leaving room for Planet to hop on board. This is not SpaceX’s first rideshare mission, but the first time its Starlink satellite stack will share fairing space with another customer.
But it won’t be the last. Planet has booked room on the next Starlink mission for another three SkySats as well.
The booster supporting this mission previously launched Dragon’s 19th and 20th resupply missions to the @space_station pic.twitter.com/D0O5vMvF0GJune 11, 2020
The upcoming SpaceX launch will star a veteran Falcon 9 rocket that already has two missions under its belt. The booster, designated B1059 by SpaceX, previously launched two science missions to the International Space Station — CRS-19 in December 2019, and CRS-20 in March of this year.
Flying previously flown boosters has become commonplace for SpaceX, but this launch will be a bit unusual. For the first time, the company will not fire up the rocket as part of preflight testing. This type of test is a routine practice for the company and involves fueling and briefly firing the rocket’s nine engines while it is held down on the pad.
SpaceX is both the launch provider as well as the customer for its Starlink missions, and its fleet of flight proven boosters have proven to be reliable rockets. In fact, the Falcon 9 recently earned the title of most-flown American rocket this year — a title that was previously held by the Atlas V.
To date, the Falcon 9 has proven that the same booster can launch and land five times, as witnessed during the previous Starlink launch on June 3. That booster recently returned to port, atop SpaceX’s former West Coast-based drone ship, “Just Read the Instructions”. That ship was moved to the Cape and received some sweet upgrades prior to entering service on the Starlink 7 mission.
Now that SpaceX has two fully operational drone ships, the company is able to launch more rockets. The original East Coast ship, “Of Course I Still Love You,” is already at the recovery zone, waiting for its turn to catch B1059, when it returns to Earth on Saturday.
The goal of SpaceX’s Starlink project is to provide users around the world with constant, high-speed internet access. The company plans to achieve that by launching a massive constellation of broadband internet satellites.
Users on the ground would then operate a small terminal — no bigger than a laptop — to gain internet access.
As evident by the launches so far this year, the majority of SpaceX’s missions in 2020 will consist of sending Starlink satellites into space. This is the eighth Starlink launch of the year, which brings the company’s fleet of internet-beaming satellites to approximately 500.
SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has previously stated that the company will need at least 400 Starlink satellites in orbit to offer “minor” broadband coverage, and at least 800 to provide “moderate” coverage. With this launch, they are more than halfway to that moderate coverage goal.
The weather on Saturday is looking promising, with only a 30% chance of weather violation, according to forecasters at the 45th Weather Squadron. Temperatures in the area are supposed to be around 70 degrees with a few scattered clouds.
In addition to a planned booster recovery, SpaceX has already deployed its two fairing-catching ships: GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief in hopes of snagging the payload fairings as they fall back to Earth. The previous recovery attempt was thwarted by rough seas at the recovery zone; the ships were able to bring one fairing piece back intact, the other broke apart as it landed in the ocean.
But SpaceX will try again. The company aims to cut down on launch costs by recovering more pieces of its rockets. Currently the company has successfully recovered 53 first stage boosters and GO Ms. Tree has made three successful fairing catches. With any luck, the company will see its first double catch Saturday.
Visit Space.com Saturday for complete coverage of SpaceX’s Starlink launch.
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.
