SpaceX launch pushes 2025 Starlink satellite deployments past 2,000
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to deliver 24 more Starlink communications satellites into low Earth orbit. (Photo Credit: Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo)
Sept. 6 (UPI) -- SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday to deliver 24 Starlink V2 mini satellites, with the company now deploying more than 2,000 such satellites to space in 2025.
The rocket lifted off at 2:05 p.m. EDT from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base and used the same first-stage Falcon 9 booster rocket that had completed 19 previous launch missions.
Prior missions by the Falcon 9 booster, number B1075, include 16 batches of Starlink satellites, a transporter mission and delivery of 10 satellites into low Earth orbit for the U.S. Space Development Agency.
The booster rocket successfully landed eight minutes and 19 seconds after launch on the drone ship named Of Course I Still Love You, which was positioned in the Pacific Ocean.
The landing on the autonomous drone ship was the 149th for that vessel and the 501st SpaceX landing on a drone ship, according to Spaceflight Now.
A second-stage booster continued to ferry the Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit before its engine cut off 53 minutes and 35 seconds after launch, followed by deployment of each of the 24 satellites.
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