WASHINGTON – SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket with another payload of Starlink satellites into space from Florida earlier today.
The rocket launched at 10.41pm EDT Sunday (10.41am today Malaysia time) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending the 22 satellites into low-Earth orbit where they will join Starlink’s constellation of thousands of orbitals that provide high-speed, low-latency Internet worldwide, according to United Press International (UPI).
Kate Tice, senior quality systems engineering manager with SpaceX, said minutes before liftoff that weather presented only “a 10% of violating our launch commit criteria”.
The launch was SpaceX’s 53rd of the year and 252nd to date.
The first-stage booster, which was on its fourth mission, returned to Earth where it successfully landed upon the Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship that was awaiting its arrival in the Atlantic Ocean, UPI reported.
Both fairing halves used in the mission were flight tested, with one half flying its eighth mission and the other flying its 10th. They were to be retrieved upon the Doug drone ship.
The launch follows SpaceX putting 22 Starlink satellites into space late last month.
Early Thursday, SpaceX also launched a single Intelsat satellite into space. – Bernama, August 7, 2023
