Internet everywhere: SpaceX launches new satellites into space – you can watch

It is the first major rocket launch in the new year: Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX wants to launch 40 new internet satellites into space on Tuesday morning. The satellites come from London-based telecommunications company OneWeb – a competitor to Musk’s Starlink.

The OneWeb satellites will be launched with a Falcon 9 rocket. The reusable rocket will take off and land at Cape Canaveral spaceport. The event will be broadcast by SpaceX on the video service YouTube.

Here’s Tuesday’s live stream (on YouTube)

OneWeb wants to launch 648 satellites to provide a global internet. Earlier satellites of the London company were launched into orbit mainly by Russian Soyuz rockets.

After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the company had to switch to alternative space providers. The choice fell on SpaceX and the Indian space agency ISRO, which launched 36 satellites into space last September.

Airbus develops the internet satellites

OneWeb is a joint project of the European aerospace and defense group Airbus and the American telecommunications company OneWeb, backed by internet pioneer Greg Wyler. Airbus is responsible for the development of the satellites.

In 2019, the first satellites were launched into space aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. User terminals on Earth communicate with the satellites in space.

In addition to OneWeb, Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX also regularly launches new internet satellites into space under the name Starlink. As this improves network coverage worldwide, the company now offers receivers for ships, mobile homes and aircraft.

Sources