SpaceX Launches 50 Starlink Satellites into Orbit; Details Tonga Efforts [VIDEOS]

Image credit: SpaceX

SpaceX launched a batch of 50 Starlink satellites into lower Earth orbit on Friday, at 9:12 a.m PST, from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This particular Falcon 9 booster, B1063, was on its fourth flight and landed successfully onto the autonomous drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This booster previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART and one Starlink mission.

Check out the replay below if you missed it:

SpaceX also shared a short clip of its efforts to help Tonga get connected to Starlink and reconnected to the internet, after a recent volcanic eruption severed its single undersea fibre-optic cable. Starlink teams landed in neighbouring Fiji to set up a Starlink Gateway station to help Tonga get connected to satellites in the sky. Check out the short clip below:

The people of Tonga were recently connected with Starlink pic.twitter.com/TfWdvnG688

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 25, 2022