SpaceX Also Launched 23 Starlink Internet Satellites to LEO Last Night
A Falcon 9 rocket launched SpaceX’s latest batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Center in Florida.
(Cape Canaveral, Florida) Less than three hours after its USSF-52 launch of an X-37B space plane, SpaceX launched a second mission to deploy 23 Starlink Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) on Thursday, December 28th at 11.01.00 EST.
Photo of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 – which launched 23 Starlink satellites into LEO two hours and 54 minutes after a Falcon Heavy launched the X-37B space plane into orbit – courtesy of Ben Cooper on Instagram, @launchphoto.
The Starlink mission – via a Falcon 9 rocket – launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Center in Florida.
According to SpaceX, the Starlink launch marked the twelfth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19, and now eight Starlink missions.
According to Ben Cooper, the photographer cited above, the two hour and 54 minute time frame between last night’s SpaceX launches marks the closest time between orbital launches from Cape Canaveral since the Gemini-Agena launch in 1966.
OPINION / P.S. I’m currently writing this article on a flight to New York and using Starlink Internet for the first time. Takeaway: SpaceX’s Starlink internet is incredibly fast and awesome.
