Aerospace company SpaceX continues to rapidly increase the size of its Starlink orbital constellation. This week, another batch of spacecraft was launched into orbit, and in total, Elon Musk’s company launched 7,001 telecommunications satellites.
Image source: Spacex
The Falcon 9 launch vehicle was used to implement the Starlink 8-11 mission. Together with 21 satellites, it launched from the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida on September 5 at 11:33 local time (18:33 Moscow time). It is noted that this time 13 “Direct to Cell” satellites, designed for Internet access from smartphones, went into space.
About 8 minutes after liftoff, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket made a soft landing on the Just Read The Instruction floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. For this first stage, the current flight was the 15th, and in 9 cases it was used in missions to launch Starlink satellites into orbit. The successful landing of the first stage was the third after the company failed to land the first stage on August 28 during an otherwise successful mission.
In parallel, SpaceX is preparing to send several secret satellites of the US National Aerospace Intelligence Administration into space. This launch is planned to take place from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on September 6 at 23:20 local time (September 7, 06:20 Moscow time). The mission, called NROL-113, will be the 20th for the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, according to SpaceX.