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It’s Launch-Time At SpaceX: Elon’s Firm Gets American Go-Ahead To Send 12,000 Satellites Into Orbit
Elon Musk (Mark Brake/Getty Images)
After getting the green signal from the American authorities, SpaceX has announced that it will be sending a constellation of nearly 12,000 satellites into orbit in order to boost cheap, wireless internet access by the 2020s.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday, announced that it has authorized SpaceX to launch 7,518 satellites, adding to the 4,425 satellites it has already approved. However, none of the satellites have been launched as of yet.
SpaceX's interest in developing such low-orbit satellites is with the aim to shorten the communication time gap between internet users on Earth and space-faring satellites thus, increasing the surfing speeds.
As per rules of FCC, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has six years in total to put half the satellites in orbit, and nine years to complete the satellite network.
SpaceX wants most of the satellites to fly in low Earth orbit, almost 335 to 346 kilometers high. This will put them below the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits about 400 kilometers above Earth, as per reports from Livemint.
However, this low-altitude would be a problem to maintain and the smaller satellites tend to have shorter lives as compared to bigger ones.
The FCC has also authorised other companies to launch satellites which includes Kepler (140 satellites), Telesat (117 satellites), and LeoSat (78 satellites).
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