SpaceX launched a brand new Falcon 9 rocket into its fleet on Sunday (Nov. 23), with he launch of 28 satellites for its Starlink megaconstellation in low Earth orbit.
The launch, from Area Launch Advanced 4 East (SLC-4E) on the Vandenberg Area Drive Base in California, befell on Sunday at 3:48 a.m. EST (0848 GMT or 12:48 a.m. PST native time). The Starlink satellites had been efficiently deployed one hour and 19 minutes into the flight.
Within the interim, the Falcon 9’s first stage, Booster 1100 (B1100) made its first landing on a drone ship, “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You,” stationed within the Pacific Ocean. The touchdown occurred about eight and a half minutes after the rocket’s launch, in response to a web page concerning the flight on the SpaceX website.
The Starlink satellites (Group 11-30) added to the greater than 9,000 models that comprise the industrial broadband web community.
Sunday’s launch was the second Starlink mission in as many days, following a flight from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station on Saturday. That liftoff had been SpaceX’s 150th Falcon 9 launch of the year.