SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites into lower-Earth orbit on Saturday evening at 11:41 p.m. ET, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This Falcon 9 first stage booster saw its second flight and landing; it previously launched CRS-24 and now one Starlink mission. You may recall this Falcon 9 first stage (B1069) was damaged during its recovery from the CRS-24 mission in December 2021, with all four legs damaged. But as we can see, it was fixed and successfully launched another mission.
According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, this Falcon 9 launch was at max capacity, carrying a load of nearly 17 metric tons, on the 58th Starlink mission.
“Squeezing extra performance out of Falcon 9 – almost at 17 metric tons to an actual useful orbit with booster & fairing reusable!”, highlighted Musk.
Squeezing extra performance out of Falcon 9 – almost at 17 metric tons to an actual useful orbit with booster & fairing reusable! https://t.co/vgHsmaSj7d
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2022
At 16.7 metric tons, this was the highest-ever payload mass to orbit on a recoverable Falcon 9 booster, said SpaceX.
This was the 30th mission of the year with flight-proven fairings that will be recovered.
Falcon 9 successfully landed on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the 138th landing of an orbital class rocket and the 110th reflight of a Falcon 9 first stage booster.
Check out the full replay below:
Starlink recently lowered pricing in 46 markets worldwide, while also recently launching in Norway.
