The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the latest batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on Sunday and successfully returned to Earth after landing on its CF Course I Steel Love You drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the company announced.
Sunday’s mission marks a record ninth flight and a landing for this Falcon 9 booster, SpaceX said, which was part of the DM-1 mission for the previous five Starlink launches and its crew Dragon Capsule.
The satellites are part of the rising Starlink constellation, which SpaceX is building to provide Internet connectivity to rural areas on Earth. The company has been allowed to launch 12,000 satellites as part of the project, and has more than 1,000 in orbit so far.
Starlink also has about 10,000 users in the beta program launched last year. The Starlink kit, which comes with a router and antenna, is priced at 4 499, with a monthly subscription of and 99 and an internet speed of between 70 and 130 Mbps. The company opened pre-orders for Starlink last month in the US, Canada and the UK with a l99 deposit fee.
Sunday’s launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for SpaceX was the second in the past few days to send its second Falcon 9 rocket into the sky from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday. That launch also brought 60 satellites into orbit. The next Starlink launch is temporarily scheduled for March 21, from Cape Canaveral.
