SpaceX launched a batch of its Starlink satellites into orbit on Friday morning (Aug. 2), following the company’s recovery from a July 11 failure.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 23 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday at 1:01 a. m. EDT (05:01 GMT).
The Falcon 9’s first tier returned to Earth about 8 minutes after its launch as planned, landing on SpaceX’s unmanned A Shortfall of Gravitas spacecraft, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is the twelfth launch and landing of this specific booster, according to a description of the SpaceX mission. Nine of those 12 flights were Starlink missions.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 stage carried all 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, deploying them there about 64 minutes after launch, according to SpaceX.
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Friday’s launch is SpaceX’s fourth in less than a week, following a Starlink liftoff on July 27 and two more on July 28. These three launches ended a two-week drought for the company, which was grounded for some time after a Falcon 9 failure on July 11. .
This twist of fate occurred after a top-tier Falcon 9 leaked liquid oxygen, preventing the vehicle from performing a planned combustion to raise its orbit. As a result, twenty Starlink satellites were lost.
SpaceX identified the cause of the leak as a crack in a voltage sensor line in the upper stage’s liquid oxygen formula and said it had taken steps to prevent the problem from recurring.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 2:30 p. m. ET on August 2 with news of a successful launch, rocket landing and satellite deployment.
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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Editor at Space. com and joined the team in 2010. It basically covers exoplanets, spaceflight, and military space, but it is known to go into the realm of space art. His book about the search for extraterrestrial life, “Out There,” was 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 clinical writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his most recent assignment is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.
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