Editor’s Note: The upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket suffered a glitch during a mission Thursday night, sending Starlink satellites to deploy at a lower altitude than planned. Read our story on the glitch here.
SpaceX launched 20 more Starlink satellites tonight (July 11), including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft lifted off tonight from Vandenberg Space Base in California at 10:35 p.m. EST (7:35 p.m. local California time; 0235 GMT on July 12). That was a day later than originally planned; SpaceX did not provide a reason. The blunder.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth as planned, landing on the ground about eight minutes after launching aboard SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You drone ship, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
This was the 19th launch and landing of this particular booster rocket, according to SpaceX Mission DescriptionThe record for a Falcon 9 first stage is 22 flights, which SpaceX set late last month.
The Falcon 9 upper stage continued to deliver 20 satellites to low Earth orbit tonight, where they will be deployed about 59 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has now conducted 69 Falcon 9 launches in 2024. Forty-nine of those missions are dedicated to building the giant Starlink constellation, which currently consists of more than 6,150 operational satellites.
More than 100 These spacecraft have direct cell connectivity, but that number will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, as will the total number of Starlink satellites.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. ET on July 10 with a target launch date of July 11. It was updated again at 10:50 p.m. ET on July 11 with news of the successful launch and landing of the rocket.
