SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida this afternoon (March 18).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink craft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1957 GMT).
About eight minutes later, the rocket’s first stage touched down on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 19th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a company mission description.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage deployed the Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) about 65 minutes after liftoff today as planned, SpaceX announced via X.
Those spacecraft will join by far the largest constellation ever assembled: SpaceX currently operates nearly 7,100 Starlink satellites in LEO, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
The Starlink launch wasn’t the only action for SpaceX today. The company’s Crew-9 astronaut mission came back to Earth from the International Space Station, carrying home three NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut.
Crew-9’s Crew Dragon capsule, named Freedom, splashed down off the Florida coast as planned at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT).
