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Elon Musk’s SpaceX Deploys 53 More Satellites

The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage landed on SpaceX’s drone ship after what marked the 25th launch of the rocket this year


Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to enter Southeast Asia with satellite internet service launched in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar by next year.
A recent Starlink satellite launch by SpaceX. Its Falcon 9 rocket has been used for repeated satellite launches. Photo: SpaceX.

 

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX on Saturday deployed another 53 Starlink satellites, a day after the launch was cancelled because of poor weather.

All the satellites were successfully deployed to low Earth orbit where they will join the rest of the Starlink satellite internet service, according to SpaceX.

“This was the ninth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-11, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and now five Starlink missions,” the company said in a statement.

The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage landed on SpaceX’s drone ship after what marked the 25th launch of the rocket in 2021.

 

Many of these missions have deployed Starlink broadband satellites for the rapidly expanding “constellation”. To date, SpaceX has launched more than 1,800 Starlink satellites.

Musk said in June he plans to invest up to $30 billion to develop Starlink. It claims to now provide coverage everywhere in the world except the North and South Poles.

The Tesla chief said he expects to invest “at least $5 billion, and maybe as much as $10 billion” in Starlink before the service has a positive cash flow, he said.

“Then over time it is going to be a multiple of that, and that would be $20 or $30 billion. It is a lot basically.”

 

  • George Russell

 

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.

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