SpaceX launched 27 extra of its Starlink web satellites to orbit at present (Sept. 6).
The spacecraft rode to low Earth orbit (LEO) atop a Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at 10:26 a.m. EDT (1426 GMT; 7:26 a.m. native California time).
The Falcon 9’s first stage got here again to Earth as deliberate 8.5 minutes later, touchdown within the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You.”
It was the nineteenth flight for this explicit booster, which is designated B1088. This marks concerning the midway level to the SpaceX report of 37 flights, which was set by B1067 throughout a Starlink launch on Aug. 25.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, carried the 27 Starlink satellites to LEO, deploying them on schedule 62 minutes after launch.
Earlier Booster 1088 launches
Right now’s launch was the 103rd Falcon 9 mission of 2026. Eighty of these flights have been devoted to constructing out the Starlink megaconstellation, by far the biggest satellite tv for pc community ever assembled. It presently consists of greater than 11,000 lively spacecraft, according to astronomer and satellite tv for pc tracker Jonathan McDowell.
Starlink missions fly solely out of Vandenberg today. SpaceX used to launch them from Florida as nicely, however the firm just lately put those missions on hold till it will get its Starship megarocket up and operating on the House Coast.
SpaceX will depend on Starship to launch its next-gen Starlink V3 satellites, that are greater and extra succesful than the present V2. The corporate needs to assemble a community of about 100,000 Starlink V3s in LEO, Elon Musk has stated.
