On Friday, another group of Starlink satellites were launched into orbit by Elon Musk's SpaceX, a billionaire startup. The founder of American spacecraft maker and satellite communications company SpaceX, Elon Musk, published information on the launch of the new satellite on his official Twitter account.
According to SpaceX reports, from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Falcon 9 launched 46 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.
The rocket touched down over a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean nine minutes after launch, and it was in the air again in no time. Following the broadcast had ended, the satellites were supposed to be deployed by the second stage 63 minutes after liftoff.
According to a report from SpaceNews, the new satellites are a part of Group 3, which orbits in an area that may be vulnerable to "squalls" of debris from a Russian anti-satellite test that took place in November of last year.
A conjunction squall event recently discovered by the space surveillance company COMSPOC involves 6,000 near encounters to the 841 Starlink satellites, which make up around 30% of the SpaceX constellation.
According to COMSPOC guidelines, a conjunction is when two circling objects are near 6 miles (10 km) of one another. SpaceX hasn't commented on whether any Starlinks were impacted, but the company has underlined in previous debates about space trash that its satellites can manoeuvre to avoid approaching spacecraft or debris.
Group 3 of Starlink's five layers of spacecraft are in a comparable orbit to other sun-synchronous satellites that have previously encountered Russian ASAT debris, according to a report from COMSPOC.
According to Teslarati, Group 3 is located at a height of 347 miles (560 kilometres), with an inclination of 97.6 degrees.
Two other Group 3 collections were already launched into orbit by SpaceX on July 10 and July 22, both from Vandenberg.
With its 36th flight of 2022, SpaceX broke its own record for most launches in a calendar year. In 2022, the business completed its 34th relaunch of a booster as well as its 62nd straight first-stage landing.
According to accounts, Friday's flight was the tenth for this specific Falcon 9 first stage. it was a SpaceX mission.
