SpaceX has reached a new launch milestone. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink spacecraft took off from the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral at 20:52 on Sunday, January 14 (01:52 GMT on January 15). SpaceX stated in a post on X later that evening that all went well.
“Falcon 9 completes our 300th successful launch by sending 23 @Starlink satellites into Florida orbit!” SpaceX wrote in the post: XHe shared a few photos of the takeoff.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 returned to Earth approximately eight minutes after liftoff and successfully landed on the unmanned A Shortfall of Gravitas spacecraft in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to SpaceX’s mission statement, this was the 12th launch and landing of this launch vehicle. Its previous flights included seven more Starlink missions. Falcon 9’s upper stage continued to carry 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, placing them there approximately 64.5 minutes after liftoff. Sunday night’s launch was the second part of the Starlink doubleheader launch; Falcon 9 also delivered a batch of Starlinks from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California early Sunday morning.