SpaceX launched 51 of its Starlink web satellites to orbit on Friday (Feb. 17), acing the primary of two orbital missions the corporate has deliberate for the day.
The Starlink craft rode atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Area Pressure Base at 2:12 p.m. EST (1912 GMT; 11:12 a.m. native California time).
The rocket’s first stage got here again to Earth safely, touchdown about 8 minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Nonetheless Love You, which was stationed within the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. It was the ninth launch and touchdown for this explicit booster, SpaceX mentioned in a mission description (opens in new tab).
Associated: 10 weird things about SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, continued hauling the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying all 51 of them as deliberate 15.5 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX confirmed via Twitter (opens in new tab).
The brand new arrivals have a whole lot of firm up there. SpaceX has now launched nearly 4,000 Starlink satellites (opens in new tab), which offer web service to folks around the globe. And the megaconstellation will proceed to develop for the foreseeable future: SpaceX has permission to loft 12,000 Starlink craft and has utilized for approval to deploy 30,000 extra satellites on prime of that.
Friday’s Starlink launch was SpaceX’s eleventh orbital mission of the yr already. And the twelfth will happen just hours from now, if all goes in accordance with plan: A Falcon 9 is scheduled to carry off from Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station on Friday at 10:59 p.m. EST (0359 GMT on Feb. 18), carrying Inmarsat’s I-6 F2 communications satellite to orbit.
That roughly nine-hour hole between liftoffs will not set a SpaceX report, nevertheless; on Oct. 5, 2022, Elon Musk’s firm launched the Crew-5 astronaut mission for NASA and a Starlink batch about seven hours apart.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide concerning the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
