SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket - VIDEO
SpaceX wrapped up its September launch schedule on Sunday evening with a Falcon 9 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The flight marked the company’s 16th launch of the month, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The Starlink 11-20 mission saw 28 of SpaceX’s broadband internet satellites deployed into low Earth orbit with deployment scheduled for a little more than an hour after liftoff.
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 7:04 p.m. PDT (10:04 p.m. EDT / 0204 UTC). The Falcon 9 rocket flew away from the pad on a south-easterly trajectory upon liftoff.
SpaceX used one of its most flown Falcon 9 boosters to launch this mission: B1063. The Starlink 11-20 mission was its 28th flight, following missions like NASA’s DART, Transporter-7 and Sentinel-6 Michael Frelich.
Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1063 landed on the SpaceX drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You. This was the 154th touch down for this vessel and the 513th booster landing to date.
The Starlink 11-20 mission was SpaceX’s 88th mission supporting its megaconstellation this year. Of those, 11 were launched this month.
SpaceX closes out the month of September with 16 orbital launches, which ties it for the most launches in a month with May. With the Starlink 11-20 mission in the books, SpaceX completed 124 Falcon 9 rocket launches so far this year. Here’s how they break down by month:
- January -13
- February – 12
- March – 11
- April – 14
- May – 16
- June – 15
- July – 13
- August – 14
- September – 16
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