1 of 2 | The reusable booster rocket 1076 (L) descends back to Earth after launching a Falcon 9 rocket (R) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday. Image courtesy of SpaceX
April 28 (UPI) — Using million pounds of liquid propellant, SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink communication satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday evening. Its job done, the first-stage booster descended while being guided by short rocket bursts and then landed precisely in the middle of drone ship Just Read the Instructions, stationed in the Atlantic 8 1/2 minutes after launch.
“Thirteen times up. 13 times down,” a live SpaceX commentator said of the rocket booster 1076 on the 13th time that reusable booster has sent a Falcon 9 to space.
This was the 43rd launch of a Falcon 9 rocket in 2024 and the mission, called Starlink 6-54, was the 29th launch of Starlink satellites this year.
A Starlink satellite has a lifespan of about five years, and SpaceX has said it aims to have 42,000 satellites in a “mega-constellation.” Sunday’s deployment of 23 will add to the roughly 5,700 satellites already in orbit.
The Sunday launch was the second in under 12 hours from Florida. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Saturday night, delivering a cluster of European Space Agency Galileo L12 satellites into orbit. They are an addition to the ESA’s existing 28 satellite constellation.
The Galileo satellites provide global positioning services which are compatible with U.S. GPS systems, but also provide service to Russia’s global navigation system.
