One up, one to go: SpaceX launched the first of a scheduled two Starlink missions on Saturday (June 28).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 27 of the broadband internet satellites lifted off at 12:26 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The new additions for SpaceX’s megaconstellation (Group 10-34) reached low Earth orbit about 9 minutes after they left the ground and were on track to be deployed approximately 50 minutes later.
In the interim, the Falcon rocket’s first stage (booster B1092) flew back to the droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” safely touching down for the fifth time.
The early morning Starlink launch is the second such flight SpaceX plans to pull off on Saturday. At 12:47 p.m. EDT (1643 GMT), the company has scheduled a second mission to send 26 more relay satellites from Space Launch Complex-41E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Should that second launch go ahead as planned, SpaceX’s Starlink network will pass the 7,900 count of active satellites, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.
