SpaceX successfully launched 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral at 9:40 EDT. This was also a record for the first time that a Falcon 9 first-stage booster has flown for the 20th time and was just two days later after another Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. This broke the previous record for the shortest time between launches by almost 22 hours.
This Falcon 9 rocket’s tail number 1062 in the SpaceX flight and entered service in November 2020 carrying a GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force. It has flown astronauts into space twice on the Inspiration 4 and Axiom 1 commercial missions. It has also flown 12 previous Starlink delivery missions.
SpaceX has 2.3 million Starlink subscribers in more than 70 countries. Since 2019 the company has launched 6,189 satellites according to statistics compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who maintains a space flight database. Of those satellites 5,787 remain in orbit and 5,5721 appear to be working normally, according to McDowell’s latest update on April 10, 2024.
SpaceX to launch 23 Starlink smallsats on Friday
SpaceX is targeting Friday, April 12 for a Falcon 9 launch of 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 9:22 p.m. ET, with backup opportunities available until 12:48 a.m. ET on Saturday, April 13. If needed, additional opportunities are also available on Saturday, April 13 starting at 9:04 p.m. ET.
A live webcast of this mission will begin on X @SpaceX about five minutes prior to liftoff. Watch live.
This will be the 20th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, OneWeb Launch 17, ARABSAT BADR-8, and 12 Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.