Update: Falcon 9 booster drone lands safely on board, ‘Lack of Gravitus.’
SpaceX continued its post-accident recovery with a planned back-to-back launch early Sunday morning. Two of its Falcon 9 rockets were launched from its pads in both Florida and California.
First the Starlink 10-4 mission will add 23 Starlink Version 2 mini satellites to its growing mega-constellation. Liftoff occurred at 1:09 am EDT (0509 UTC).
The mission comes after SpaceX’s successful return to flight operations early Saturday morning. It was the first Falcon 9 launch in two weeks, following the crash of the second stage of the Starlink mission, which launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 11.
The Falcon 9 booster supporting the mission, tail number B1077 in the SpaceX fleet, launched and landed for the 14th time. It previously launched NASA’s Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station, the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 06 satellite and two cargo missions to the orbital outpost on its previous flights.
Eight minutes after liftoff, B1077 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This marked the 77th landing in ASOG and the 331st booster landing to date.
The Starlink 10-4 mission will be the 51st dedicated Starlink launch of 2024 and the 114th dedicated launch of the V2 mini-class of Starlink satellites.
According to professional orbital observer and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, there are more than 6,100 active Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit. On Wednesday, SpaceX announced that Starlink Internet service is now available on more than 1,000 aircraft, with the latest deal from airline WestJet.
