SpaceX successfully launches 53 Starlink satellites

© Joe Marino/UPI SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 53 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit early Thursday. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI

Feb. 2 (UPI) -- SpaceX successfully launched 53 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit early Thursday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket with the stack of satellites mounted on top lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at 2:58 a.m. EST, after its launch time had been pushed from 19 minutes earlier.

The first-stage booster, which previously supported four other missions, landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean following separation and its descent back to Earth.

SpaceX confirmed the booster's safe landing upon the ship on Twitter.

Confirmation of the satellites' deployment came shortly after 4 a.m.

Thursday's launch was the eight of the year, and comes two days after SpaceX launched 49 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, with the mission lifting off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Fifty-six satellites were launched into space on the morning of Jan. 26 from Space Complex 40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and 51 were deployed on Jan. 19, with the launch occurring at the California base.

The Starlink constellation consists of more than 3,500 small satellites with the aim to provide high-speed, low-latency broadband Internet across the globe.

 

Read More

• Astronauts awarded Congressional Space Medals of Honor
• SpaceX launches 56 more Starlink satellites in heaviest payload yet
• SpaceX's Starship clears latest hurdle in quest to return to moon