SpaceX sends 22 Starlink Satellites to Orbit from California

SpaceX continues its unimaginable tempo with the launch of twenty-two V2 mini Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Area Power Base in California. This launch marked the 77th mission of the 12 months for the corporate, with 50 of these being Starlink satellite tv for pc missions.

With two extra months left in 2023, SpaceX is on tempo to eclipse 90+ launches in a calendar 12 months. No different firm or nation is presently wherever near the quantity of {hardware} SpaceX has launched into orbit this 12 months.

Whereas a overwhelming majority of these payloads have been Starlink satellites, SpaceX remains to be launching vital missions for NASA, together with crew rotations and re-supply missions to the Worldwide Area Station to communications satellites for personal firms.

The 22 Starlink satellites which are presently going via checkouts have been deployed from the second stage of the Falcon 9 simply over an hour after the lift-off and have been inserted right into a 53-degree orbital inclination. With this launch, SpaceX has now launched over 4,900 Starlink satellites into orbit.

As for the Falcon 9 entrusted with this mission, Booster 1075 took the job, finishing its seventh mission after only a 34-day turnaround, beforehand having launched a Starlink mission on September twenty fifth. Following its portion of the flight, B1075 landed on the droneship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You” eight and a half minutes after lift-off.

SpaceX had deliberate back-to-back launches with one other Starlink mission from Florida, however with simply 30 seconds left within the depend, an abort was referred to as.

The launch director introduced that the abort was referred to as because of “stage sep middle pusher accumulator strain slope examine throughout terminal depend” being the explanation behind the delayed launch. SpaceX will give it one other strive later tonight and is presently focusing on 7:20 p.m. ET (23:20 UTC on the thirty first). If SpaceX isn’t in a position to launch on the opening of the window, they’ve a number of alternatives till 10:22 p.m. ET.

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SpaceX sends 22 Starlink Satellites to Orbit from California