{"id":10144,"date":"2024-04-06T18:46:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T10:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-begins-commercial-direct-to-cell-starlink-constellation-with-falcon-9-flight-from-vandenberg-space-force-base\/"},"modified":"2024-04-06T18:46:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T10:46:36","slug":"spacex-begins-commercial-direct-to-cell-starlink-constellation-with-falcon-9-flight-from-vandenberg-space-force-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-begins-commercial-direct-to-cell-starlink-constellation-with-falcon-9-flight-from-vandenberg-space-force-base\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX begins commercial Direct to Cell Starlink constellation with Falcon 9 flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_65865\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65865\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65865\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/20240406_Starlink_8-1_launch.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/20240406_Starlink_8-1_launch.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/20240406_Starlink_8-1_launch-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/20240406_Starlink_8-1_launch-678x373.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/20240406_Starlink_8-1_launch-768x423.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65865\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at sunset from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 8-1 mission on April 6, 2024. Image: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For a second time this year, SpaceX is preparing to launch another batch of Starlink satellites that support its Direct to Cell capability. The six spacecraft are among the 21 total satellites which launched on Saturday, April 6, from Vandenberg Space Force Base.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened at 7:25 p.m. PDT (10:25 EDT, 0225 UTC).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Watch live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Launches Starlink 8-1 from Vandenberg SFB\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qVDef-iaLhg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1081 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a sixth time. It previously supported the launches of NASA\u2019s PACE spacecraft, the Crew-7 astronauts, CRS-29, Transporter-10 and Starlink Group 6-34.<\/p>\n<p>A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1081 landed on the SpaceX droneship, \u2018Of Course I Still Love You.\u2019 This marked the 88th landing on OCISLY and the 293rd booster landing to date.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_64767\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-64767\" style=\"width: 2048px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64767\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/diagram-v2-2048x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/diagram-v2-2048x1024-1.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/diagram-v2-2048x1024-1-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/diagram-v2-2048x1024-1-678x339.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/diagram-v2-2048x1024-1-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/diagram-v2-2048x1024-1-1536x768.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-64767\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A diagram of the Starlink direct-to-cell service. Graphic: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Following January\u2019s launch of the first DTC Starlink satellites in January, SpaceX conducted a number of tests using the budding service. Those included sending text messages, making phone calls and posting to social media.<\/p>\n<p>In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, SpaceX Vice President of Falcon Launch Vehicles, Jon Edwards, said that many more DTC satellites are coming in the first half of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Falcon and Starlink teams are working hard to get the first direct-to-cell constellation up by the end of August,\u201d Edwards wrote.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1776801323528122382&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2024%2F04%2F06%2Flive-coverage-spacex-to-launch-next-6-direct-to-cell-capable-starlinks-on-falcon-9-flight-from-vandenberg-space-force-base%2F&amp;sessionId=025afa2f368dc4d404a0194347ea400d669360ba&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1776801323528122382\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i178246163299321177=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">With tonight\u2019s first Group 8 launch we kick off deployment of our commercial direct to cell constellation!  @Starlink https:\/\/t.co\/xAMmmwLCFr<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) April 7, 2024<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In an email to the Federal Communications Commissions\u2019 (FCC) Satellite Licensing Division, SpaceX director of satellite policy wrote that they are aiming to launch 7,500 DTC Starlinks.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple SpaceX officials have stated that they are working to send 28 Starlinks to low Earth orbit in a single launch by the end of the year. So far, they have launched a batch of 24 satellites once back in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at sunset from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 8-1 mission on April 6, 2024. Image: SpaceX For a second time this year, SpaceX is preparing to launch another batch of Starlink satellites that support its Direct to Cell capability. The six spacecraft are among the 21 total [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1076,479,316,440,1417],"class_list":["post-10144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-direct-to-cell","tag-falcon-9","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-starlink-8-1"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}