At approximately 7:00 p.m. this Monday, dozens of people from the Las Cañitas municipal district, Hato Mayor, were amazed to see the light in the sky emanating from an aircraft.
It was the Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX, one of Elon Musk’s companies.
According to the locals, they were confused and stunned because they did not know the source that produced the light in the sky.
Sources indicate that the rocket was seen from various points in the national territory, such as the greater Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macorís, among other locations.
Related – Elon Musk’s Starlink is now available in the Dominican Republic
Falcon 9 was launched in the state of Florida, United States, and will put 21 Starlink satellites into orbit, a high-speed broadband satellite internet system that can provide services worldwide.
Space.com states SpaceX has permission to launch 12,000 satellites but has requested approval from an international regulator to launch up to 30,000 more.
The company explained that while most satellite internet services come from satellites orbiting at about 35,000 kilometers, the Starlink swarm is much closer to Earth, at about 550 kilometers, allowing it to reduce the time it takes for data to go back and forth between the user and the satellite.
Starlink announced its insertion in the Dominican Republic last July 2022.
Also read – What is the cost of Starlink in the Dominican Republic?