The American private aerospace company SpaceX announced the 400th successful launch of the Falcon 9 series launch vehicle. Another batch of 24 Starlink Internet satellites was launched into low-Earth orbit. The launch took place from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 26 at 11:41 pm EST.
Image source: Spacex
The deployment of Starlink satellites occurred 65 minutes after launch. This was the 400th successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket since its debut in 2010, SpaceX said on its X social media page.
The first stage of the launch vehicle returned to Earth 8 minutes after launch and successfully landed on the floating barge A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 375th successful landing of a Falcon 9 first stage and the 15th for a specific first stage, according to the company. In eleven of fifteen launches, the specified booster was used on Starlink missions.
Since the beginning of the year, SpaceX has completed 117 launches of Falcon 9 rockets. As part of 81 launches, the company launched more than 1,700 Starlink Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. At the same time, the company carried out its last five launches over the past eight days.
According to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, the Starlink megaconstellation of satellites—the largest ever built—currently consists of nearly 6,700 active spacecraft.