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Photo credit: SpaceX
SpaceX launched another batch of its broadband satellites from Florida early Sunday morning (December 8).
A Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:12 a.m. EST (0512 GMT) on Sunday.
The first stage of the rocket landed as planned on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after launch.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida on December 8, 2024.
According to a SpaceX mission description, it was the second launch and landing of this particular launch vehicle.
Meanwhile, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 was able to successfully station the 23 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) as planned.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
A black and white first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits on the deck of a ship at sea at night.
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Sunday morning’s launch was the 123rd Falcon 9 launch of the year. Almost 70% of these missions were dedicated to building the Starlink mega-constellation, the largest satellite network ever built.
LEO currently hosts more than 6,800 operational Starlink spacecraft, about 350 of which are capable of broadcasting services directly to cell phones.
