SpaceX launched one other batch of its Starlink web satellites on Thursday (Might 2), on the second half of a spaceflight doubleheader.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 23 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral House Drive Station at 10:37 p.m. EDT (0237 GMT on Might 3).
The Starlink launch was SpaceX’s second of the day. A Falcon 9 already lofted two Earth-observation satellites for the corporate Maxar from California’s Vandenberg House Drive Base earlier Thursday afternoon.
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After launching the Starlink satellites tonight, the Falcon 9’s first stage got here again to Earth for a vertical touchdown on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed within the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the nineteenth launch and touchdown for this specific booster, in keeping with a SpaceX mission description. That is only one shy of the corporate’s rocket reuse report, which was set final month and tied by two different Falcon 9s, together with the one which launched from Vandenberg on Thursday.
Starlink, SpaceX’s broadband constellation in low Earth orbit, at present consists of greater than 5,800 energetic satellites.
A good variety of these spacecraft have gone up this yr; SpaceX has launched 43 orbital missions up to now in 2024, and 29 of them have been dedicated to constructing out the Starlink megaconstellation.
