Starlink is a vast satellite constellation conceived by American company SpaceX to provide Internet access to remote parts of the globe. It potentially comprises up to 42,000 small satellites.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is preparing to launch 60 Starlink “internet satellites” into space on 29 January amid critics' fury over the resulting “wall of space junk” flooding Earth's orbit.
The Starlink satellites are tightly packed into a 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket, which is currently on a launchpad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
It's scheduled to liftoff early Wednesday morning to carry the satellites into space, where they will orbit 341 miles above Earth, in a launch originally set for 27 January, but postponed over strong winds.
The current launch comes amid a flurry of disapproval, as critics from the ranks of the astronomy community have been repeatedly voicing concerns that humanity could be trapped on Earth by a “wall of space junk” cluttering up Earth's orbit.
As close to 200 satellites have already been launched, with the tech billionaire given the green light to send tens of thousands more into orbit, some scientists suggest Musk's plan, albeit rooted in good intentions, could generate catastrophic space clutter, eventually blocking rockets from leaving Earth, in an effect dubbed the “Kessler syndrome”.
Amid fears sparked by the fact that thousands of years would be required for any SpaceX satellite left in…
