SpaceX launched a brand new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit from its West Coast launch web site on Thursday (Sept. 12).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink web satellites soared into house from Vandenberg House Drive Base in California at 9:45 p.m. EDT (0145 GMT Friday, Sept. 13 or 6:45 p.m. native time).
The primary stage for the SpaceX booster than landed on the corporate drone ship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You” within the Pacific Ocean about eight minutes after launch.
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It was the 18th time this first-stage booster has flown to house and again once more, with 11 of these missions alone supporting earlier Starlink deployments, in response to SpaceX data.
Another SpaceX missions for this booster have included a few Transporter launches, which ship satellites for a number of shoppers to house on the similar time, in addition to nationwide safety missions for the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace.
Greater than 6,300 Starlink satellites are operational in orbit, in response to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer on the Harvard-Smithsonian Middle for Astrophysics who additionally retains observe of house launches.
SpaceX has been launching often in current days, together with sending 5 BlueBird smartphone satellites to orbit for AST SpaceMobile earlier within the day on Wednesday, and the crewed Polaris Daybreak non-public mission on Tuesday (Sept. 10). SpaceX has launched greater than 90 missions to house in 2024, in response to media experiences.