CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket sent up its Starlink 6-62 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station late Wednesday.

The launch did not see any delays, going up when the window began at 10:35 p.m. ET.

The 45th Weather Squadron gave a 95% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule. 

Going up

This is mission eight for the Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1080. And some of the seven missions it has done are quite impressive.

1. ESA’s Euclid telescope
2. Ax-2 crew mission
3. Starlink 6-11 mission
4. Starlink 6-24 mission
5. Ax-3 crew mission
6. CRS-30 mission
7. Starlink 6-52 mission

After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas that was in the Atlantic Ocean.

About the mission

The 23 satellites will be heading to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands already there.

Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, tracks Starlink satellites.

Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:

• 6,024 are in orbit
• 5,243 are in operational orbit