A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from the West Coast Saturday, carrying another batch of satellites for the company’s Starlink internet service.
Liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California occurred at 8:51 a.m. PDT (11:51 a.m. EDT / 1551 UTC). The Falcon 9 look a southerly trajectory on departure from Space Launch Complex 4E, as it targeted an 97-degree inclination orbit.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster, launching for an eighth time, touched down on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’, stationed about 380 miles downrange in the Pacific Ocean. The booster, B1100, previously launched the NROL-105 mission for the US government spy satellite agency and six previous Starlink missions.
SpaceX confirmed a successful deployment of the 24 Starlink V2 Mini satellites from the Falcon 9 second stage into a 168 x 160-mile orbit just over an hour into the mission.
The Starlink 17-51 mission was the seventh of eight planned Falcon 9 launches this month from Vandenberg. SpaceX’s West Coast pad has become the company’s workhorse launch facility in recent months as it focuses on Starship preparations in Florida. By comparison, four Falcon 9 missions have flown from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in July so far and one more is planned.
