SpaceX launched one other batch of its Starlink web satellites early this morning (Jan. 21), 5 days after a take a look at flight of the corporate’s Starship megarocket resulted in an explosion.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy House Middle in Florida on Tuesday at 12:24 a.m. EST (0524 GMT).
The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff as deliberate, touching down within the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas.”
It was the eighth launch and touchdown for this specific booster, based on a SpaceX mission description. 4 of these flights have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, will carry the 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there about 65 minutes after liftoff.
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This morning’s liftoff was the ninth Falcon 9 mission of 2025 and SpaceX’s tenth launch of the yr total. The opposite mission was the seventh-ever take a look at flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, which occurred on Thursday (Jan. 16) from South Texas.
That flight was a combined bag for the corporate. Starship’s large first-stage Tremendous Heavy booster got here again to its launch web site for a dramatic catch by the tower’s “chopstick” arms, however the automobile’s higher stage exploded simply 8.5 minutes after liftoff, apparently after struggling a propellant leak.
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