constellation

To find Taurus, look for the constellation Orion and then peer to the north-east to find the red star Aldebaran, the star in the bull's eye.

This stage has the new capability to be stopped and restarted multiple times, which is useful when launching large batches of satellites into a constellation, or network.

These include 18 launches for another US billionaire, Jeff Bezos, who wants to establish a constellation of internet satellites he calls Kuiper.

“It’s still a good business but it’s going to be diminished, because it really is these big, mega constellation systems that are the future,” he said.

In August it launched the first 18 of what it hopes will eventually be a constellation of 14,000 satellites providing broadband internet coverage from space, which it hopes will one day rival SpaceX’s Starlink.