Spaceflight

SpaceX wraps up Starlink launches for October

Posted by

Lia De La Cruz

and

Dave Adalian

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October 30, 2023

Illuminated arc of a launching rocket, over the ocean, at dusk. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Greg Diesel-Walck wrote on October 30, 2023, “Starlink 6-25 launch. It was delayed a few times, but went off tonight at dusk 7:20 p.m. You’ve seen a sun pillar before the sun rises? It had that effect in one of the clouds above it when it first launched. From the beach near our home in Ormond by the Sea, Florida.”

You can watch a recorded livestream of the Starlink launches on SpaceX’s feed, on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Successful Starlink launches in October 2023

Starlink Group 6-21: October 5, 2023, 1:36 a.m. EDT (5:36 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 7-4: October 9, 2023, 12:23 p.m. PDT (7:23 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-22: October 13, 2023, 7 p.m. EDT (23 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-23: October 17, 2023, 8:36 p.m. EDT (0:36 UTC October 18)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 7-5: October 21, 2023, 1:23 a.m. PDT (8:23 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-24: October 21, 2023, 10:17 p.m. EDT (2:17 UTC October 22)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 7-6: October 29, 2023, 2 a.m. PDT (9 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-25: October 30, 2023, 7:20 p.m. EDT (23:20 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | SUCCESS

After launch, look for a train of lights

Following every Starlink launch, the internet buzzes with people asking:

What’s that long line of lights in the sky that looks like a train?

What you’re seeing is the Starlink satellites moving into a higher orbit. You can check to see if they will pass over your area using the Find Starlink website.

Growing numbers amid controversy

According to Wikipedia, as of August 2023, Starlink consists of over 5,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit that communicate with designated ground transceivers. They provide internet access to more than 2 million subscribers.

Love ’em or hate ’em, these Starlink satellites are part of SpaceX’s vision for a global internet communication satellite constellation. They deliver high-speed internet service worldwide, mainly to locations where ground-based internet is unreliable, unavailable, or expensive. The private company is well-known for launching batches back-to-back, several times a month, regularly lofting 60 satellites at a time. And SpaceX plans to build up to perhaps as many as 30,000 eventually.

Most thought it was exciting to see the first few Starlink satellites traveling together in the night sky. But then more were launched, and then more. And astronomers began to worry.

Because Starlinks are bright, astronomers say they’re photobombing astronomical images. Therefore, they have the potential to interfere with the professional astronomical observations that have brought us our modern-day view of the cosmos. And although SpaceX has tried to address the issue, they remain far from what astronomers say is acceptable.

Bottom line: SpaceX’s final Starlink launch for the month took flight from Florida at 6:20 p.m. EDT (23:20 UTC) on October 30, 2023.

Via Next Spaceflight

Posted

October 30, 2023

Spaceflight

Lia De La Cruz

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About the Author:

Lia De La Cruz is a journalist based in Southern California. She joined EarthSky in September 2020, with previous writing published in outlets including SkyFeed, Smore Magazine, and Bang It Out on Science. In her free time, she enjoys reading and volunteering.

Dave Adalian

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About the Author:

Award-winning reporter and editor Dave Adalian's love affair with the cosmos began during a long-ago summer school trip to the storied and venerable Lick Observatory atop California's Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose in the foggy Diablos Mountain Range and far above Monterey Bay at the edge of the endless blue Pacific Ocean. That field trip goes on today, as Dave still pursues his nocturnal adventures, perched in the darkness at his telescope's eyepiece or chasing wandering stars through the fields of night with the unaided eye. A lifelong resident of California's Tulare County - an agricultural paradise where the Great San Joaquin Valley meets the Sierra Nevada in endless miles of grass-covered foothills - Dave grew up in a wilderness larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, one choked with the greatest diversity of flora and fauna in the US, one which passes its nights beneath pitch black skies rising over the some of highest mountain peaks and greatest roadless areas on the North American continent. Dave studied English, American literature and mass communications at the College of the Sequoias and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked as a reporter and editor for a number of news publications on- and offline during a career spanning nearly 30 years so far. His fondest literary hope is to share his passion for astronomy and all things cosmic with anyone who wants to join in the adventure and explore the universe's past, present and future.

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SpaceX wraps up Starlink launches for October