Launch Updates: Starlink In-flight Service, New SpaceX Milestones, Indian Rocket to Orbit OneWeb Satellites

SpaceX will offer high-speed, low-latency broadband services to aircraft beginning next year. Details include:

• Hardware: $150,000 (not including installation)
• Service: $12,500-$25,000 per month
• up to 350 Mbps to each plane
• latency as low as 20 ms
• No long-term contracts
• Unlimited data.

SpaceX Reaches Launch Milestones

SpaceX reached multiple launch milestones when a Falcon 9 booster lifted 54 Starlink broadband satellites into orbit on Thursday. Milestones included:

• 48th Falcon 9 launch of 2022, a new record for a single launch vehicle type
• 100th launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
• more than 3,500 Starlink satellites launched into orbit.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the company is aiming for 60 launches this year and 100 launches next year.

OneWeb Launch Scheduled

Launches of OneWeb broadband satellites will resume this weekend after an eight-month gap when an Indian GLSV Mk III rocket with 36 satellites aboard lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Launch is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 21, at 2:37 p.m. EDT (18:37 UTC/12:07 a.m. IST on Sunday). The launch will be livestreamed here.

All OneWeb satellites have been launched by 13 Russian Soyuz boosters so far. The remaining spacecraft in the 648-satellite constellation were due to launch on six Soyuz rockets this year. The contract was terminated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.

OneWeb has secured two Indian GSLV Mk III launches. The company will also launch satellites on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

This will be only the fifth GSLV Mk III launch since the booster’s maiden flight in December 2014, and the first mission in more than three years. The booster has been successful in its three orbital launches and one suborbital flight.

GSLV Mk III is India’s largest rocket, and it is capable of placing 10,000 kg (22,046 lb) into low Earth orbit or 4,000 kg (8,818 lb) into geostationary transfer orbit.