“Whoa, it worked!!”

That’s one of the messages Elon Musk tweeted from space this week via SpaceX’s Starlink satellites!

SpaceX recently launched the team of Starlink satellites with the goal of providing people around the world with reliable broadband internet. Clearly they’re doing something right, as the satellites were able to send two tweets from space on Oct. 22.

This orbiting network of satellites is far from complete, though, with only roughly 60 satellites currently circling the planet. SpaceX has approval to launch roughly 12,000 Starlink satellites into orbit and recently applied for permission to launch up to 30,000 more. Luckily this will not require 30,000 rocket launches, as many of these can fit onboard one rocket. In fact, all 60 that are currently in orbit were launched in May aboard a single Falcon 9 rocket.

Multiple other companies, including Amazon, have stated interest in also producing their own satellite-based internet service. These massive constellations of satellites are going to change the Earth-orbiting population. Right now there are about 2,000 operational satellites circling our planet.

Some astronomers have stated that such huge numbers of satellites might affect affect ground-based observations of celestial objects. Others have also voiced concern about the threat of space junk from these huge constellations of satellites.

If you could tweet from space, what is the first thing you would write? Let us know via Facebook, Instagram, and – obviously – Twitter!

Learn more about space stories like this one in LSC’s Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, the biggest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. Click here to see what’s playing and get showtimes.

Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium,  LSC Space News Now,  SpaceX