SpaceX launched one other batch of its Starlink web satellites to orbit early Sunday morning (Nov. 24).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft — 13 of that are able to beaming service on to smartphones — lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Area Drive Base on Sunday at 12:25 a.m. EST (0525 GMT; 9:25 p.m. on Nov. 23 native California time).
The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff as deliberate, touching down on the SpaceX droneship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You” within the Pacific Ocean.
It was the fifteenth launch and touchdown for this explicit booster, in line with a SpaceX mission description. Twelve of these flights have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage hauled the 20 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there about an hour after liftoff as deliberate, SpaceX reported in a put up on X.
Sunday’s launch was the one hundred and fifteenth Falcon 9 flight of the yr. Practically 70% of these liftoffs have been dedicated to constructing out Starlink, the most important satellite tv for pc constellation ever assembled.
The megaconstellation at the moment consists of greater than 6,600 energetic satellites, and, as Sunday’s mission exhibits, it is rising on a regular basis.
