SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink broadband satellites from California on Tuesday night (June 18), ending a 10-day spaceflight drought for the company.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped out with 20 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 live-cell capable, from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday at 11:40 p.m. EDT (8:40 p.m. local California time; 0040 GMT on June 19).
About 8.5 minutes later, Falcon 9’s first stage touched down with the SpaceX droneship off course I Still Love You, which was parked in the Pacific Ocean.
Step one is the fifth launch and landing for this particular booster SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, towed 20 satellites into low-Earth orbit, where they were scheduled to be deployed an hour after liftoff. The new batch will add more 6,000 operational satellites Starlink Megaconstellation.
Tuesday night’s mission was SpaceX’s 61st orbital liftoff of the year, but the first since June 8. So far in 2024, it won’t qualify for any operator other than SpaceX, which will launch every 2.8 days.
Starlink was launched as the second half of a Spaceflight doubleheader for SpaceX on Tuesday. But the launch of the first phase, the Astra 1P communications satellite for Luxembourg-based SES, was halted by high winds near the launch site at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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