SpaceX launched its next Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday morning, a day before the company’s stock becomes publicly available on the Nasdaq.
The Starlink 17-44 mission added another 24 broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation. There are more than 10,500 Starlink satellites currently in orbit.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 8:05:59 a.m. PDT (11:05:59 a.m. EDT / 1505:59 UTC). The rocket flew on a south-southwesterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.
SpaceX launched the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1071. This was its 34th flight after launching five times for the National Reconnaissance Office, five SpaceX rideshare missions, Germany’s SARah-1, NASA’s SWOT, CAS500-2 for South Korea and 20 previous Starlink delivery flights.
The first stage booster launched on the SpaceX drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean about eight and half minutes after launch. This was the 202nd landing on this vessel and the 622nd booster landing for SpaceX.
