Key points:
- Elon Musk’s space tech company, SpaceX launched a satellite today
- The satellite launch lit the New Jersey sky and areas around it
- What seemed like a meteor initially, was the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which was launched from Cape Canaveral
SpaceX launched Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral last night.
As a result, the night sky in and around New Jersey witnessed something unique on Saturday. A white light streak caught the attention of thousands of citizens. What seemed like a meteor was the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
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More about SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch
The stage was set for the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 rocket took flight against clear skies on Saturday night. The rocket is reusable in the first stage and launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. According to information released by SpaceX, the company released 52 Starlink satellites into orbit.
Clear skies made for an excellent sight of the rocket at around 7:30 PM. People saw the rocket all along the East Coast and reported seeing it.
SpaceX has been developing Starlink, a satellite-based worldwide internet system to provide internet connectivity to underserved regions of the world. At the moment, there are many satellites present in low Earth orbit.
According to the SpaceX launch website, this was the fourth launch and landing for this Falcon 9 first-stage rocket, which has previously launched SES-22 and is now launching three Starlink missions.
The first stage landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after liftoff.
Starlink internet was activated in Iran as the U.S. lifted sanctions
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, declared that he is activating his Starlink satellite internet service in Iran after the Iranian government cut off access because of widespread protests in the country.
Musk made his announcement following the Treasury Department’s issuance of a general licence allowing businesses to increase internet access for Iranians and get beyond state-sponsored measures to suppress dissent. This has been one of the most severe internet censorship imposed on Iranian citizens since authorities fought with demonstrators in November 2019.
The latest state-sponsored outages are taking place in Iran’s capital Tehran in response to the killing of Iranian journalist Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police.
Some Iranians might be able to reconnect to the internet thanks to Starlink, but a State Department official who briefed reporters on the situation on Friday warned that Tehran still possesses “repressive means for communication.”
They also added that the Iranian people will now find it “easier to oppose some of the oppressive technologies” because of Musk’s new licence. It doesn’t suggest that they are defunct.
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