SpaceX launched one other batch of its broadband satellites from Florida early Sunday morning (Dec. 8).
A Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink spacecraft, together with 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Area Power Station on Sunday at 12:12 a.m. EST (0512 GMT).
The rocket’s first stage got here down for a touchdown on the SpaceX droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” within the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after launch as deliberate.
It was the second liftoff and landing for this explicit booster, in keeping with a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, efficiently deployed the 23 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) as deliberate.
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Sunday morning’s launch was the 123rd Falcon 9 liftoff of the yr. Almost 70% of those missions have been dedicated to constructing out the Starlink megaconstellation, the biggest community of satellites ever assembled.
LEO at the moment homes greater than 6,800 operational Starlink spacecraft, about 350 of that are able to beaming service on to cellphones.
