CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — While you were asleep, SpaceX successfully launched another round of Starlink satellites into orbit.
What You Need To Know
SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites Wednesday night
- The Falcon 9 rocket has been used for a half-dozen previous launches
- Scroll down to the bottom to watch a replay of the launch
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:44 p.m. ET Wednesday with 60 of the mini-satellites aboard. It's the 25th Starlink mission.
It was an instantaneous window, which means the rocket had to blast off at that time or would have been rescheduled.
The rocket's first stage booster has been used for six previous launches, according to SpaceX. The company recovered it when it landed on one of its drone ships — Just Read the Instructions — in the Atlantic Ocean.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, completing this booster’s seventh launch and landing pic.twitter.com/uir08tQmMU
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 29, 2021
Starlink is SpaceX's growing broadband internet network. Eventually, it will comprise tens of thousands of orbiting satellites that will help bring high-speed internet access to underserved areas around the world.
The service is available in some areas right now, and the company aims to have much of the network up and running by the end of this year.
The small Starlink satellites, which SpaceX says are 60 times closer to Earth than traditional satellites, can occasionally be spotted crossing the night sky.
Later this week, SpaceX hopes to bring back the four Crew-1 astronauts from the International Space Station.