There are over 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, providing internet, surveillance and navigation services, The New York Times reported.

It is not going well. China’s Starlink competitors have only about 120 satellites in low Earth orbit.

China’s two biggest networks have been deployed less than 1 percent of their planned satellites, records show, a measure of how far they are falling behind Elon Musk’s company SpaceX for dominance in space communications.

Satellites in low Earth orbit, up to 1,200 miles above the planet, are increasingly seen as essential for driverless cars, drone warfare and military surveillance. China regards Starlink as a military threat, and Chinese companies have invested heavily in two huge networks, with nearly 27,000 satellites planned between them. 

Space.Com reported: A new group of Starlink satellites are circling the Earth after an early Sunday morning (July 26) launch from Florida.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 5:01 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The boosters upper stage reached a preliminary orbit about nine minutes after leaving the ground.

The 28 broadband internet satellites (group 10-26) were released into low Earth orbit about an hour into the flight.

“Deployment of 28 Starlink satellites confirmed,” SpaceX confirmed on the social media network X.

The launch is the first of two Starlink missions planed for the day. SpaceX has schedule a second launch with 24 satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 8:55 p.m. PDT local time.

As planned, the Falcon 9’s first stage separated from the upper stage at about 2 minutes into the ascent and then preformed a propulsive return to Earth, firing one of its engines to land on “A Shortfall of Gravias” an autonomous droneship station in the Atlantic Ocean. The booster completed its 22nd flight.

UPI reported: SpaceX early Saturday launched another 28 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Florida, days after a short service outage hit the space-based internet provider. 

The Falcon 9  lifted off at 5:01 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Pad 40. The first stage booster launched for the 22nd time, including Crew-6 and 17 previous Starlink missions.

About 8 minutes after liftoff, the booster landed on “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone shop stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the “119th touchdown on the drone ship and the 480th to date for SpaceX in Florida and California.

This year, it was the 91st Falcon 9 launch, according to SpaceFlight Now. There are more than 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell.

http://youtu.be/VuwU3e_ojuo

Mankind has long been at the mercy of the cosmos – subject to the often violent happenings of the boundless universe that exists beyond the confines of Earth’s atmosphere. But today humans are taking huge steps to claim space for their own design, evolution and survival in what is becoming a new race for space. In the all-new three-part special MAN VS. THE UNIVERSE, world premiering Wednesday, August 13 at 10 PM ET/PT, Science Channel is bringing viewers a mind-blowing look at the innovative, high-tech work private businesses, engineers and scientists are doing to occupy Mars, mine the Moon’s fertile grounds and keep asteroids from destroying life on Earth.

“Space truly is the final frontier for humans,” said Rita Mullin, General Manager, Science Channel. “For the first time ever we’re taking proactive steps to protect ourselves from its perils, and use its vast resources to ensure our survival. This process features extraordinary ideas driven by astonishing feats of technology and engineering. We hope MAN VS. THE UNIVERSE captures some of the remarkable work happening right now in this new race for space, and gives viewers an appreciation for the incredibly smart, creative, driven people doing this work.”

MAN VS. THE UNIVERSE is an epic three-part miniseries from Science Channel and Revelations Entertainment, the producers of the critically acclaimed, Emmy-Award nominated series THROUGH THE WORMHOLE WITH MORGAN FREEMAN that unveils an unprecedented era of space exploration happening right now. In MAN VS. THE UNIVERSE viewers go inside the race to the Moon where the grand prize offers a total of $30 million in winnings to the first privately funded teams to land a robot on the Moon that successfully travels more than 500 meters (1,640 ft) and transmits back high-definition images and video. Deeper in our galaxy lies Mars, with an atmosphere 100 times thinner than Earth’s, air that is almost pure carbon dioxide and an average temperature of minus 80 degrees, colonizing this planet will be no picnic. MAN VS. THE UNIVERSE explores how high tech spacesuits are being created so humans can live comfortably in this environment 24/7, while we experiment turning Martian soil into water. MAN VS. THE UNIVERSE is also keeping an eye on our home planet as engineers and scientists prepare for the next mega asteroid attack, similar to what killed off the dinosaurs. They are pushing the limits trying to create an enormous capture bag – a robotic vehicle that will go out and snag an asteroid partway between Earth and Mars, and drag it back to orbit the moon. If that doesn’t work, Plan B is DE-STAR, a massive solar-powered array of laser beams that vaporize asteroids ten times larger than a football field.