Just after midnight on Sunday, December 8, a rocket lit up the clear night sky over Cape Canaveral.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:12 a.m. and disappeared into the night sky. Eight and a half minutes after takeoff, the first stage booster landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.
The launch sent 23 of the company’s Starlink satellites into orbit. According to SpaceX, 13 of these satellites include the Direct to Cell service, which provides Starlink cell phone services to customers.
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The second flight of the first phase took place on Sunday, after the NOAA GOES-U satellite had only been launched earlier in late June. The Falcon Heavy consists of three Falcon 9 boosters: the core and two side boosters. The nuclear booster of that Falcon Heavy launch vehicle was not recovered after the GOES-U launch. This means that the booster used for Sunday’s Starlink launch was one of the side boosters. SpaceX has not revealed any further details.
When is Florida SpaceX’s next launch?
According to an advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), SpaceX will launch the mPOWER-E satellites for SES during a launch window running from 3:55 PM to 6:25 PM on Thursday, December 12. The launch will take place from the Space Center’s Kennedy Pad 39A.
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Brooke Edwards is a space reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or at X: @brookeofstars.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX’s overnight launch from Florida will deliver Starlink satellites
