Photo: SpaceX
On Wednesday, @Elon Musk congratulated SpaceX on the completion of its remarkable 60th successful mission of 2022, following the most recent Starlink satellite launch from earlier today from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites into orbit using its Falcon 9 booster on Wednesday morning, marking the company’s 60th mission launch.
The launch was this particular Falcon 9 booster’s 11th launch, previously also launching the GPS III Space Vehicle 04, the GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301 and six total Starlink missions.
This launch was also SpaceX’s first launch of its second-generation Starlink satellites, which the company previously stated would take place before the end of December.
According to SpaceX’s launch web page, a new license allows the satellites to be launched to a new orbit altitude, and the next-generation satellites are expected to add even more capacity to the already existing network.
The news comes just a week after SpaceX reached one million active Starlink subscribers, and after the company completed three launches in a period of 36 hours.
Earlier this month, SpaceX also announced that it reached 3,230 Starlink satellites in operational positions out of a total of 3,267 currently in orbit and 3,558 having been launched at the time.
In recent weeks, SpaceX also gained approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch as many as 7,500 of its next-generation satellites.
