Photo: SpaceX
As SpaceX’s Starlink continues its expansion to offer satellite internet around the world, CEO Elon Musk is noting just how frequently the company has launched its orbital satellites in the past few weeks.
SpaceX is now launching Starlink satellites into orbit roughly every five days, said @Elon Musk on Wednesday. Musk retweeted a photo from SpaceX captioned “Falcon 9 launches Starlink to orbit for SpaceX’s sixth launch this month.”
The company launched 46 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit on Tuesday evening at 10:40 p.m. PT, from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
SpaceX said this was the 7th flight for this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, and now five Starlink missions.
Check the replay below:
Now launching every ~5 days https://t.co/KJYG5CKPYx
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2022
In recent months, SpaceX has been particularly productive, even setting a few records with its frequent launches.
SpaceX set a new payload record in its most recent Starlink launch, running the Falcon 9 booster at maximum capacity with almost 17 metric tons of cargo to mark the 58th Starlink mission.
In July, SpaceX set a record with its 32nd mission overall this year for the most launches in a single year. In 2021, SpaceX launched a total of 31 times showing how many more launches the company has performed already just a few months into the second half of 2022.
Earlier this week, SpaceX was awarded an appeal letting it launch Starlink satellites at lower altitudes. The victory came in opposition to past requests from rivals such as Amazon and Viasat, both of which have tried to stop and modified SpaceX’s approved Starlink launches.
