On Monday, April 28 at 1:42 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 launched 27 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The rocket’s nine Merlin engines transported 27 Starlink satellites into LEO and released them from the rocket’s payload adapter about one hour into flight.
This was the 25th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, SDA-0B, NROL-113, NROL-167, NROL-149, and now 17 Starlink missions.
SpaceX’s Starlink network consists of more than 7,000 satellites and counting. As a whole, they operate in a grid that blankets nearly all of the planet, save for the poles.