A Falcon-9 launcher took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 04:09 Belgian time. The first stage returned and landed on the droneship ‘Just Read The Instructions’ 8.5 minutes after take-off. That staircase succeeded for the seventh time in this feat. It is also the 116th time that a first stage flew again. Reuse of rocket parts reduces launch costs.
The remainder of the rocket put 51 satellites in orbit around our planet for Starlink. With Starlink, SpaceX aims to create a global broadband internet network. The company has already launched a total of 3,259 Starlinks.
There was also an additional “passenger”: the space tug Sherpa-LTC2 from the company Spaceflight. The rig was carrying a payload for Boeing’s Varuna test program that aims to test V communications for a constellation of 147 non-geostationary satellites.
It was SpaceX’s 40th launch this year and also the 59th for Starlink.