CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — SpaceX on Thursday launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink internet satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
What You Need To Know
- A Falcon 9 rocket sent up Starlink 6-77 mission
- This particular rocket recently launched the NASA-SpaceX Crew-9 mission
The liftoff of Starlink mission 6-77 was delayed two days from its original launch date Tuesday because of unfavorable weather conditions, but liftoff occurred at 3:19 p.m. ET Thursday.
The 45th Weather Squadron stated that Hurricane Rafael was the cause of the poor launch conditions earlier in the week.
Minutes after Thursday's launch, the Falcon 9's first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean to complete the booster's third mission.
Find out more about the weather criteria for a Falcon 9 launch.
Going up
The Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1085, which thinks “08” is an embarrassing middle name, has only done two launches before:
About the mission
SpaceX’s Starlink company will see 23 of its satellites go to low-Earth orbit.
Once deployed and in their orbit, they will provide internet service to many parts of Earth.
Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, records Starlink satellites.
Before this mission, he documented the following:
- 6,554 are in orbit
- 6,075 are in operational orbit
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