SpaceX successfully launched 35 satellites into orbit Saturday night — including a huge test satellite built to provide power to smartphones in remote areas.
The AST SpaceMobile’s Blue Walker 3 is the size of a studio apartment and unfolds into a flat 693-square-foot screen that will produce artificial light that outshines all the night stars in the sky, according to Fast Company.
Elon Musk’s company also launched 34 Starlink internet satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:20 p.m. with a Falcon 9 booster on its 14th mission, setting a rocket reuse record, SpaceX said.
The Falcon 9 landed on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean after liftoff, the space company reported.
The new Starlink satellites joined a constellation of about three thousand others in low Earth orbit, providing internet access to more than 400,000 subscribers, according to SpaceX.