Elon Musk's SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites From California

SpaceX said that the satellites were successfully deployed.

By Associated Press | Updated: 14 May 2022 13:58 IST

Elon Musk's SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites From California

Photo Credit: Twitter/ SpaceX

The Falcon 9 booster was lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base

Highlights

SpaceX announced the successful deployment of satellites
Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:07pm
SpaceX's Starlink Internet service is available in 32 new countries now

A SpaceX rocket carried 53 satellites for the Starlink internet constellation into orbit Friday after blasting off from California.

The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:07pm., and minutes later the first stage landed on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean while the second stage continued toward low Earth orbit.

SpaceX later tweeted that the satellites were successfully deployed.

Elon Musk's Starlink Now Available to Ship Immediately in 32 Countries

Starlink is a space-based system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has hundreds of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 340 miles (550 kilometers).

SpaceX recently announced that its Starlink Internet service will now be available in 32 new countries. It shared an availability map for the service, which showed countries marked under different segments such as Available, Waitlist, and Coming Soon. Most countries in Europe and North America are listed under Available, while some regions in South America are under waitlist, which means that the Starlink service is read to ship in these regions. Most of the newly added countries fall under the coming soon category, including all of Africa, South America, and South and Southeast Asia.

The Starlink Internet service will expand to more countries, including India. However, in India, the service still hasn't received commercial licences. SpaceX had originally planned to launch the service in India and provide full coverage by the end of 2021. The new availability map does not reveal any timelines for the countries where the Internet service is said to launch.

How is Alexa faring in India? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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