Photo: SpaceX
The orbital Starlink constellation from SpaceX is growing rapidly, and the company just launched another batch of the satellites on Thursday.
SpaceX launched 54 more Starlink satellites into orbit on Thursday, using its reliable Falcon 9 booster, that also successfully landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship.
The launch window began at 10:50 a.m. Eastern Time, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This marked this Falcon 9 booster’s tenth launch and landing, now having completed five Starlink missions and the launches of GPS II Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1 and Nilesat 301.
“Congrats to @SpaceX team on 48th launch this year! Falcon 9 now holds record for most launches of a single vehicle type in a year,” said Elon Musk on Thursday.
SpaceX also launched the Eutelsat satellite earlier this week, just as the previous Crew-4 astronauts returned from the International Space Station aboard the Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX is planning to launch weekly second-gen Starlink launches in 2023, as seen in a filing earlier this month.
Earlier this month, SpaceX even had a double launch day, sending 52 Starlink satellites into orbit and sending the Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station.
You can watch SpaceX’s successful Starlink launch below:
