On the 14th anniversary of its Falcon 9 rocket’s first launch, Starlink put up 20 new satellites, 13 of which have direct-to-cellular capabilities.
The launch brings the number of D2C-capable satellites that Starlink has in space to 50, according to a SpaceX post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
According to another post from Michael Nicolls, VP of Starlink engineering at SpaceX, 26 satellites launched over the past month represent more than eight percent of the satellites needed for initial direct-to-cellular service. Starlink began launching the D2C-capable “Starlink V2” satellites in January of this year, in anticipation of commercial service with a number of carriers around the world, including T-Mobile US.
