SpaceX Launches Another Batch of Starlink Satellites Written 17 July 2023
On Saturday, July 15 at 11:50 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. | Credit: SpaceX; YouTube; framegrab
UPI reports that SpaceX “launched its latest round of Starlink communication satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida just before midnight Saturday.” The mission had “been scrubbed Friday, with SpaceX saying a static fire of the rocket’s main engines would need to be performed, giving a hint to a possible rocket hardware issue.” The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage, which “launched the 54 satellites, safely returned to Earth, touching down on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, marking a record-tying 16th safe launch and landing of the rocket’s booster.” The first stage of another Falcon 9 rocket “launched on July 9 also landed safely on Earth for the 16th time, setting a record for the company. Saturday’s launch tied that record.” The return of Saturday’s first stage “marked the 207th time SpaceX has safely returned the first stage.”
Full Story (UPI)
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Starlink Mission
On Saturday, July 15 at 11:50 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida.
(SpaceX; YouTube)