Main Engine Cut OffSpaceX’s First Dedicated Starlink Launch Set for May
Michael Baylor, for NASASpaceflight:
Additionally, SpaceX recently filed for the FCC licenses needed to support a Falcon 9 launch from SLC-40 and a recovery on OCISLY. The droneship will be positioned about 600 kilometers downrange to the northeast. Interestingly, there is not a SpaceX customer on the near-term manifest with a payload that would require such a trajectory.
NASASpaceflight.com now understands that this is the first dedicated flight for SpaceX’s proposed low earth orbit internet constellation called Starlink.
The downrange distance for landing suggests that the launch will carry quite a payload.