SpaceX’s Latest Starlink Launch Underscores Urgency For Starship Test

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SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida yesterday. The launch took its latest second generation mini satellites to orbit. After a mission earlier this month that marked the last launch of Starlik 1.5 satellites, moving forward, these launches should account for the bulk of SpaceX's mission cadence. Today's mission came soon after SpaceX set a new record by flying two Falcon 9 rockets 16 times each and after the firm started to face multiple delays on its launches after scrubs less than a minute before liftoff.

After SpaceX received FCC authorization to start launching its second generation Starlink satellites late last year, the firm has started to use the Falcon 9 rocket for these missions. Due to the size constraints of the Falcon 9 and the fact that Starlink Gen2 spacecraft features a myriad of upgrades that make them larger, the latest bit of launches for the spacecraft, which SpaceX dubs as 'V2 mini' satellites, see far fewer of these crammed inside a Falcon 9's fairing.

Compared to the earliest days of the Starlink buildout, the capacity of the Falcon 9 to deliver these spacecraft to low Earth orbit (LEO) has been reduced by nearly two thirds. SpaceX's primary plans involve using the significantly larger Starship rocket for the larger satellites, and its initial FCC authorization enables it to launch 7,500 of these spacecraft.

Considering the capacity of the Falcon 9, which has seen Gen2 launches remain limited to roughly 22 satellites per mission, SpaceX will need years to build out this phase of the Starlink