Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched 52 Starlink satellites to the low-orbit of Earth from the base in California. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The company completed the first eleventh launch and landing of an orbital class rocket booster with the launch. It was the 34th launch for Starlink.
The second stage continued into orbit, and deployment of the satellites was confirmed, said launch commentator Youmei Zhou at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Besides the lift-off from California, SpaceX also launched a Turkish communications satellite from Florida on Saturday. A 230-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:58 p.m. EST carrying the Turksat 5B satellite into space.
The company has one more Falcon 9 launch planned on December 21, 2021, which will carry a cargo Dragon spacecraft into space for NASA. That mission will close the year for SpaceX. In 2020, SpaceX launched 26 rockets in a year, making the record for most launches in a single year. This year the company had plans of launching an estimated 40 rockets and completed 34 launches.
SpaceX Starlink applies for an experimental/trial license in India
Comprised of nearly 2000 broadband satellites, Starlink intends to connect people around the globe who have little-to-no internet access. In India, SpaceX planned to subsidise its rates so that people in India can access Starlink internet much cheaper compared to the international market. The company had opened the services for pre-booking, but India’s telecom regulatory authority and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that the company is yet to get its license to offer internet services in the country.
The DoT has started to pace up the clearance process for establishing satellite-based broadband services. Besides Starlink, Bharti Group-backed OneWeb is also awaiting clearance in the country. Starlink recently applied for an experimental/trial license in DoT. The company intends to book for commercial licenses in early 2022.
Meanwhile, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has sought opinions on making all required permissions online in its consultation paper ‘Ease of Doing Business in Telecom and Broadcasting Sector’. The paper suggests a single-window clearance system involving the participation of the rest of the ministries.
