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For the past few days, a succession of very bright white lights have been crossing the sky: these are the Starlink satellites, launched by the SpaceX company. Explanations on an extraordinary project.
A flashing and enigmatic trail, which crosses the sky at full speed, was filmed by many Internet users last weekend. These are satellites of the Starlink project, sent into orbit. A young enthusiast watched their passage from the family terrace, in the south of France. “I saw this line. It lasted between 10 and 15 seconds, it goes very fast, and so it’s very impressive”, he confides. The Starlink project is that of SpaceX and its creator, Elon Musk, who is constantly investing in the space field. Since 2019, it has been sending satellites in clusters of 50 in its Falcon rockets.
On August 19, their deployment in space was first done in single file, then everyone deployed their solar panels. They are sent to low orbit, just above the International Space Station, 550 km from us. The objective is to create a giant constellation around the Earth, to provide a high-speed Internet and telephone connection even in the most isolated regions. “It’s possible because these SpaceX rockets are reusable, they can launch rockets and satellites with a high rate. (…) Global internet coverage will only work because there will be a large number of satellites”explains David Fossé, deputy editor-in-chief of “Ciel et espace”.
12,000 satellites will be sent by 2025, and 42,000 eventually, according to SpaceX. However, there are risks of collision, since no instance regulates the traffic.