SpaceX reached a major milestone Saturday evening after launching a series of 28 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9 rocket had a successful launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC) at 10:46 p.m.
This is the 33rd flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, SES 03B, PSN SATRIA Telkomsat Merah Putih 2, Galileo L13 and 20 Starlink missions.
The first phase landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean after the subsequent phases.
Meanwhile, no sonic booms were heard in Brevard County as the booster landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. It remains to be seen how many flights a single Falcon 9 booster will achieve.
The next Falcon 9 rocket launch from Florida is scheduled for no earlier than 3:56 p.m. Feb. 24 at Space Launch Complex 40 on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission will carry the next batch of SpaceX Starlink internet satellites, called Starlink 6-110. The successful landing of the first stage booster for the 33rd time has essentially ushered in a new era of space economics.
