New Delhi: Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX on Monday aced double launches of 46 Starlink internet satellites in low-Earth orbit -- all under just six hours.
The satellites lifted onboard the company’s reusable, two-stage Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the company said, in a statement.
The first set of 23 satellites lifted off at 4:35 am on Monday IST. “This was the 11th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06, Inmarsat I6-F2, CRS-28, Intelsat G-37, NG-20, and now five Starlink missions,” it added.
About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth and made a vertical landing on the SpaceX drone ship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Deployment of 23 @Starlink satellites confirmed,” SpaceX said in a tweet, an hour after the launch. The second set of 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit liftoff at 9:39 am IST.