SpaceX launched 22 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit Sunday from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Courtesy of SpaceX.
The reusable first stage booster returned to the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean about 8 minutes after launch. This was the 11th flight of the booster rocket and the 75th time this droneship has been used to recover a first stage booster.
Between weather and technical issues, SpaceX has been facing challenges in deploying this mission since June 14.
This is the 65th SpaceX mission this year, and the company is on pace for 148 missions, eclipsing last year’s total of 98.
This is SpaceX’s 348th Falcon mission overall, and the company seeks to provide internet service to 3 million people when all of its satellites are deployed.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch another Falcon 9 with a batch of 20 Starlilnk satellites at 11:45 p.m. ET Sunday, this time from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
That payload will include 13 satellites featuring “Direct to Cell” capabilities. SpaceX will use the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ for retrieval of the first stage booster rocket.
A Starlink satellite has a lifespan of approximately five years and SpaceX eventually hopes to launch as many as 42,000 satellites. It has been seeking approval to launch more.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch launch a geostationary satellite Monday from Cape Canaveral, weather permitting. This will be the latest in a series of geostationary satellite launches, which sit about 23,000 miles above the Earth and work with other geostationary units to cover the surface of the planet with signal through a process known as ‘triangulation.’ This launch has been delayed since April.
