SpaceX launched yet another batch of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Wednesday, at 6:59am ET from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This particular first stage Falcon 9 booster (B1052) successfully launched and landed for the sixth time, previously supporting Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, and now two Starlink missions.
Here’s a short clip of the launch:
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/8NrcVRbELe
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 18, 2022
…and here’s Falcon 9 landing on the autonomous droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean, always an incredible view to watch an 18-storey high building land on its own. This was the 121st overall recovery of a Falcon booster, said SpaceX.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/2sNklBXGP8
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 18, 2022
Here’s the full replay below, which includes some really cool bonus video coverage of the moon, filmed by SpaceX’s tracking cameras on the ground.
This was SpaceX’s 12th Starlink launch of the year on Falcon 9. This rocket is slated to launch the Transporter 5 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare) mission on Wednesday, May 25.
SpaceX has so far launched 19 rockets in 2022, along with landing two Dragon spacecraft in the first 130 days of the year, a pace never-before-seen in the commercial rocket industry. On the weekend SpaceX launched two Starlink missions in 24 hours, back-to-back.
Starlink is now available in 32 countries and recently a new updated availability map debuted, to show where service is available.
