The American space company SpaceX has launched its first satellites to offer broadband internet at the night from Thursday to Friday.

The Falcon 9 rocket was launched from the American state of Florida around 4.30 am with the first sixty satellites, each weighing 227 kilos, on board.

With the launch of the satellites, SpaceX is preparing itself for the construction of the so-called Starlink network. With this, the company wants to offer internet connections to paying customers worldwide. Entrepreneur Elon Musk, the director of the space company, says to see Starlink as an important new source of income.

The revenues from the internet offer should contribute to the development of a new space vehicle that has to make paying customers fly to the moon, and later to Mars.

The Starlink network has so far only been licensed to operate in the United States. In addition, at least 420 satellites are needed to be able to offer the first connections. SpaceX plans to approach its first customers later this year or next year.

In addition to SpaceX, satellite companies OneWeb, which launched its own network of satellites in February, LeoSat Enterprises and Telesat, are also working on similar plans.