Jan. 10 (UPI) — SpaceX on Friday launched 21 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit with a Falcon 9 rocket whose reusable first stage took part in a record 25th mission.
“The Starlink Direct to Cell constellation now has 400 satellites to enable ubiquitous access to texting, calling, and browsing around the world, eliminating dead zones across land, lakes, or coastal waters,” the company said.
Shortly after Friday’s launch, the record-breaking booster landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
It had flown 24 previous missions, adding CRS-22, CRS-25, Crew-3, Crew-4, TelkomSat-1thirteenBT, Turksat-5B, Koreasat-6A, Eutelsat HOTBIRD-F2, Galileo Lthirteen, mPOWER-A, PSN. MFS and thirteen previous Starlink flights.
SpaceX touted the Falcon rocket’s achievements for engaging in 4 Dragon missions, which 8 astronauts were transported to the International Space Station, and for launching more than 430 spacecraft into orbit over the beyond 4 years.