SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida early this morning (Aug. 4).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 3:57 a.m. EDT (0757 GMT). It was SpaceX’s 96th Falcon 9 launch of the year already.
The rocket’s first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes later as planned, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean on “Just Read the Instructions,” one of SpaceX’s drone ships.
According to a SpaceX mission description, it was the 21st flight for this particular booster, which is known as B-1080. Fifteen of those missions have been Starlink launches.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the 28 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit, where they’re scheduled to be deployed 64 minutes after launch.
They’ll have a lot of company up there. The Starlink megaconstellation, the largest satellite assemblage ever built, consists of more than 8,000 operational satellites, and it’s growing all the time.