Early on Sunday, June 4, SpaceX placed a group of new Starlink Internet satellites into orbit in a fascinating morning launch. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 new SpaceX “V2 Mini” Internet satellites for Starlink communications took off at 8:20 a.m. ET (12:20 GMT) on Sunday from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. . Eight minutes later, Falcon 9’s first-stage launch vehicle returned to Earth to land on the SpaceX unmanned spacecraft. Just read the instructions. in the Atlantic Ocean.

The smooth launch and landing was the first of two Florida launches planned by SpaceX today. Another Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to take off from nearby Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center to launch an uncrewed Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station for NASA, but bad weather forced SpaceX to delay it until Monday, June 5. Today’s launch comes 13 years after SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 launch in 2010.

Today’s launch of SpaceX’s Starlink mission has been delayed from May 30, when the company launched 52 other Starlink satellites. The need for a final technical inspection of the Falcon 9 booster and bad weather delayed the ground flight until Sunday.

Bad weather has been a thorn in SpaceX’s both Starlink cargo launch and Dragon CRS-28, but that may be easing the situation. Earlier on Sunday, SpaceX wrote that today’s Starlink launch has a dire 15% chance of flight, but that estimate has risen to 90% “launch” about an hour before launch.

SpaceX V2 Mini satellites are more powerful versions of the old Starlink spacecraft. According to the company, the new satellites offer more bandwidth and are equipped with electric Hall thrusters, which provide more than double those used in older iterations.