SpaceX unveiled another batch of its Starlink satellites on Monday, Dec. 18, after a series of delays.
The company launched 23 Starlink spacecraft from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 GMT on Dec. 19).
Starlink’s liftoff was originally scheduled for Dec. 11, but SpaceX pulled out due to weather issues. Mother Nature didn’t cooperate until Monday night.
SpaceX had also originally scheduled Dec. 11 for the launch of the U. S. Army X-37B spaceplane atop a Falcon Heavy rocket, but that attempt failed due to a challenge on the ground. The Falcon Heavy is now scheduled to launch on Dec. 28.
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As scheduled Monday, the Falcon 9’s first level returned to Earth for a vertical landing about 8. 5 minutes after launch. He landed on the drone “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” parked in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.
This is the third launch and landing of this specific booster, according to a description from the SpaceX project. Its other two projects were Crew-7 and CRS-29, which sent astronauts and a shipment to the International Space Station for NASA, respectively.
Meanwhile, the 23 Starlink satellites were to deploy from the level of the Falcon 9 to low-Earth orbit about 65. 5 minutes after liftoff.
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Starlink is SpaceX’s megaconstellation, which lately has more than 5,000 operational spacecraft.
The huge network has grown especially over the past year. SpaceX has announced more than 90 orbital missions through 2023, with most of them committing to building the Starlink constellation.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated multiple times, with news of the various weather delays and its eventual launch.
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Michael Wall is a senior space writer at Space. com and joined the team in 2010. It basically covers exoplanets, spaceflight, and military space, but it’s known for getting into the field of space art. His book on the search for extraterrestrial life, “Out There,” published on November 13, 2018. Prior to becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He holds a Ph. D. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a B. A. from the University of Arizona and a Graduate Certificate in Science Writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest assignment is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.
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