SpaceX Falcon 9 launches third fleet of Starlink V2 'Mini' satellites

SpaceX already provides high-speed Starlink satellite internet to over 1.5 million subscribers globally. Today, May 19, it launched the third fleet of Starlink V2 ‘Mini’ satellites which are part of the Starlink second-generation (Gen2) system designed to increase the internet network’s capabilities. The Starlink V2 Minis are a smaller version of a future iteration of the V2 satellites which will be much larger and require Starship to launch them. “V2 Minis include key technologies—such as more powerful phased array antennas and the use of E-band for backhaul—which will allow Starlink to provide ~4x more capacity per satellite than earlier iterations. This means Starlink can provide more bandwidth with increased reliability and connect millions of more people around the world with high-speed internet,” says the company. The third Starlink V2 Mini satellite mission comes exactly a month after the second fleet which launched on April 19. 

Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/yBjjF8J52x

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 19, 2023

The fleet of 22 Starlink V2 Mini satellites was released by Falcon 9's upper-stage to orbit around an hour after liftoff. The satellites in this fleet belong to Starlink Group 6-3 which is the third fleet of Gen2 satellites that will operate in a 43° degree circular orbit at 530 kilometers above Earth. The satellites will unfurl their two solar arrays and use their onboard Argon Hall thrusters to raise into their operational orbit in the weeks ahead. According to data collected by Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, SpaceX now operates around 4,157 Starlink satellites in Low Earth Orbit. The company has approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a total of 7,500 Starlink Gen2 satellites in the coming years. SpaceX aims to achieve sending Starship to orbit this year to begin launching the full-size Starlink Gen2 satellites as soon as its an operational vehicle. Starship will be able to carry significantly more mass than Falcon 9 to rapidly complete the broadband constellation.