SpaceX launches 53 Starlink satellites into orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX expanded its constellation of debased Earth orbit satellites connected Saturday with the motorboat of 53 Starlink satellites from Florida.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted disconnected from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station astatine 7:19 a.m. EST and deployed the satellites astir 16 minutes aft launch.

The rocket’s reusable archetypal stage, which has been utilized for aggregate launches, including the archetypal crewed trial flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, successfully returned and landed connected the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship successful the Atlantic Ocean.

Starlink is simply a satellite-based planetary net strategy that SpaceX has been gathering for years to bring net entree to underserved areas of the world.

Earlier this week, SpaceX launched 4 astronauts to the International Space Station, including the 600th idiosyncratic to scope space successful 60 years.

Ad

It took 21 hours for the formation from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to scope the glittering outpost.

The astronauts got emotional erstwhile they archetypal spotted the abstraction presumption from 20 miles (32 kilometers) out, calling it “a beauteous glorious sight.”

Three astronauts welcomed the unit alternatively of the preferred seven.

That’s due to the fact that SpaceX brought 4 of them backmost connected Monday, aft the motorboat of their replacements kept getting delayed.

The caller unit volition walk the adjacent six months astatine the abstraction presumption and, during that time, big 2 groups of visiting tourists.

Russia volition motorboat the archetypal radical successful December and SpaceX the 2nd successful February.

___

Follow Alex Sanz connected Twitter astatine https://www.twitter.com/alexsanz

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.