SpaceX launched 20 more Starlink broadband satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, from California early Wednesday morning (September 25).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Spaceport, on California’s central coast, at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT; 9:01 p.m. Sept. 24 California time) on Wednesday.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth 8.5 minutes after liftoff as planned, landing on SpaceX’s “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.
This was the 10th launch and landing of this particular booster rocket, according to SpaceX Mission Description.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 upper stage continued to make its way to low Earth orbit, where it is scheduled to deploy 20 satellites 60 minutes after liftoff. The new satellites will join the giant Starlink constellation, which consists of more than 100 satellites. 6300 active spacecraft.
Related to: Starlink Satellite Train: How to See and Track It in the Night Sky
The Starlink launch was part of a typically busy week for SpaceX. Elon Musk’s company aims to launch NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday (September 28), sending it atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida.
Crew-9 is not a typical astronaut mission to the International Space Station. It will launch with a crew of two instead of the usual four, because it will bring back to Earth two people who already live on the ISS — NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who arrived in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
The Starliner spacecraft experienced engine problems on its way to the International Space Station, and as a result NASA decided to return the spacecraft to Earth without a crew. Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth with Crew-9 astronauts — NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Alexander Gorbunov — aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon “Freedom” capsule in February 2025.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 12:30 a.m. ET on Sept. 24 with news of the successful launch and landing of the rocket.
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