San Francisco: Elon Musk-run SpaceX on Wednesday launched another successful mission carrying 60 more Starlink satellites onboard a Falcon 9 rocket into low-Earth orbit that will join the rest in beaming affordable Internet.
The reusable Falcon 9 rocket made a record-breaking seventh trip this time.
This was SpaceX’s 16th Starlink mission and the company has to date launched nearly 1,000 small satellites for its constellation.
SpaceX recently presented the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Starlink internet performance tests, showing it was capable of download speeds of between 102Mbps to 103Mbps, upload speeds of 40.5Mbps to not quite 42Mbps, and a latency of 18 milliseconds to 19 milliseconds.
“Once these satellites reach their target position, we will be able to roll out a fairly wide public beta in the northern US and hopefully southern Canada,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet.
Watch Falcon 9 launch 60 Starlink satellites → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdK https://t.co/MVepYNuXX6
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 25, 2020
“Other countries to follow as soon as we receive regulatory approval,” he added.
It is expected that there will be gigabit speeds on offer, meaning up to 1Gbps Internet speeds, with a fairly low latency of up to 25ms.
Starlink plans to offer these Internet services for around $80 per month, which is priced at par if not lower than similar speed broadband plans in most countries, including India.
The company is geared up for a public beta of the affordable satellite broadband service.
