SpaceX launches 58 more Starlink satellites in Saturday ride-share mission – CNET

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida in the predawn Saturday sky, simply 2 weeks after another of the business’s workhorse rockets sent NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.

The company had actually followed up its historical first launch of humans simply a few days later, with a launch of Starlink satellites, and now it’s managed its first Starlink ride-share, bring 58 of its own broadband satellites, together with three Earth-observing spacecraft for Planet Labs.

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The objective brings the overall variety of Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit to more than 500, while increasing Planet’s SkySat fleet to 18. SpaceX’s Starlink aims to ultimately include 10s of thousands of orbiting routers that’ll blanket the Earth in broadband internet access, while the SkySats will help Planet Labs develop images of the Earth’s surface.

The very first phase booster had actually previously flown two times, both times on Dragon cargo resupply objectives to the ISS. It was successfully recovered once again when it landed on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean less than 10 minutes after launch.

You can enjoy a recording of the entire objective above.

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