KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The weekend kicked off with SpaceX launching more than 20 Starlink satellites on a very early Friday morning.    

The Falcon 9 rocket sent up Starlink 10-6 mission from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, stated SpaceX. 

The liftoff happened at 1:01 a.m. ET, but originally, the launch window was set to open at 12:19 a.m. ET and close at 4:19 a.m. ET.

Going up

This is 12th mission for the Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1078. It has had 11 important missions, including a crewed one:

1. Crew-6
2. SES O3b mPOWER
3. USSF-124 mission
4. Starlink 6-4
5. Starlink 6-8
6. Starlink 6-16
7. Starlink 6-31
8. Starlink 6-46
9. Starlink 6-53
10. Starlink 6-60
11. Starlink 10-2

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

About the mission

The 23 satellites from the Starlink company will be sent to low-Earth orbit to provide internet services to many parts of the globed Earth.

SpaceX owns the Starlink company.

Before this launch, Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, recorded the following:

• 6,281 are in orbit
• 5,854 are in operational orbit