SpaceX launched one other batch of its Starlink web satellites to orbit from Florida early this morning (Aug. 4).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as we speak at 3:57 a.m. EDT (0757 GMT). It was SpaceX’s 96th Falcon 9 launch of the 12 months already.
The rocket’s first stage got here again to Earth about 8.5 minutes later as deliberate, touching down within the Atlantic Ocean on “Simply Learn the Directions,” considered one of SpaceX’s drone ships.
In response to a SpaceX mission description, it was the twenty first flight for this specific booster, which is named B-1080. Fifteen of these missions have been Starlink launches.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, continued hauling the 28 Starlink satellites towards low Earth orbit, the place they’re scheduled to be deployed 64 minutes after launch.
They’re going to have lots of firm up there. The Starlink megaconstellation, the biggest satellite tv for pc assemblage ever constructed, consists of more than 8,000 operational satellites, and it is rising on a regular basis.