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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 60 more Starlink internet relay satellites on Saturday, increasing the total number launched to date to 895 as the company builds a planned constellation of thousands designed to provide a global high speed broadband service.
Two days late due to an onboard camera issue, the Falcon 9’s first stage, flown twice, came to life at 11:31 a.m. EDT, pushing the 229-foot-tall rocket away from platform 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. . It was the California rocket maker’s 19th launch so far this year and its 15th Starlink flight.
The ascent from the lower atmosphere went smoothly and, as is customary at SpaceX, the first stage of the Falcon 9 flew back to land on an offshore drone ship. After two second-stage engine starts, all 60 Starlink satellites were launched to fly on their own, marking the 95th successful flight of the company’s Falcon 9 and the 100th overall.
SpaceX’s Starlink operation has the regulatory approval to launch more than 12,000 of the small satellites in multiple orbital planes, providing commercial users with direct access to space-based broadband signals from anywhere on Earth. The company is already testing the service in select areas.
William Harwood / CBS News
With Saturday’s launch, SpaceX has put 895 Starlinks, 180 of them, more satellites than any other company owns, into orbit in less than three weeks.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, a prominent spaceflight analyst, reports that 53 Starlinks have been deliberately exorbitant to date, two reentered on their own after failures, and another 20 no longer appear to be maneuvering. Including the 60 launched on Saturday, that leaves about 820 Starlinks presumably operational in orbit.
