SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket holding test satellites for global broadband internet service
The US firm hopes to use broadband to diversify its revenue stream beyond launch operations.
United States aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company SpaceX on Thursday launched its PAZ satellite into orbit. The mission had been scrapped on Wednesday due to high winds, TechCrunch reported.
SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, CNBC reported. The rocket holds two test satellites for the company’s global broadband satellite internet service.
The two satellites could enable the deployment of 12,000 other satellites in orbit, to provide fast and affordable broadband internet to areas lacking connectivity globally.
SpaceX hopes to use the internet service, which it calls Starlink, to diversify its revenue stream beyond launch operations. This in turn, could help human beings become interplanetary species with missions to Mars in future, TechCrunch said.
The Falcon 9 rocket is a reused device, part of which will eventually be discarded into the sea. SpaceX plans more flights of the rocket later in 2018, Space.com reported.
Today’s Falcon launch carries 2 SpaceX test satellites for global broadband. If successful, Starlink constellation will serve least served.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 21, 2018