CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Monday morning carrying another round of communications satellites, bringing the company closer to reaching its goal of providing global internet coverage from space.
News 6 partner Florida Today reports liftoff happened at 9:55 a.m. from Launch Complex 40. The Falcon 9 booster landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic about 10 minutes after launch.
"Experienced" fairing deployed! That's a whole lot of satellites. #Starlink https://t.co/PlTBrbZXkm
— Emilee Speck (@EMSpeck) November 11, 2019
These are things to know about the launch:
- Densely packed together in the payload fairing are 60 Starlink communications satellites.
- The rocket's first stage booster landed on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
- This marks the first time SpaceX reused a payload fairing — the nosecone of the rocket — from a previous flight and fourth time it reused a Falcon 9 first-stage booster.
- SpaceX's goal is to have almost 12,000 satellites operating in low-Earth orbit, with plans to launch an additional 30,000 satellites in the future.
- Part of the goal of creating the Starlink broadband constellation is to help fund Musk's dream of colonizing Mars.
LAUNCH DAY: We’re just a few hours away from liftoff in Brevard County. A Falcon 9 is launching 60 satellites into orbit. We’re live at Jetty Park with details of what this means for SpaceX. pic.twitter.com/dVOnLis71D
— Mark Lehman (@MarkLehman6) November 11, 2019
Launch details:
- Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9
- Mission: SpaceX Starlink-2
- Launch Time: 9:55 a.m. ET
- Launch Window: 9:51 a.m. to 10:02 a.m.
- Launch Complex: 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
- Landing: Yes, Of Course I Still Love You drone ship
- Weather: 80% “go”