Sept. 25 (UPI) — SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a payload of more than two dozen Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit early Thursday from Central Florida.
The rocket launched at 4:36 a.m. EDT Thursday from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
It was the 22nd flight for the first-stage booster, which successfully returned to Earth where it landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The 28 Starlink satellites are to be jettisoned into low-Earth orbit where they will join a constellation of thousands that offer high-speed, low-latency Internet coverage worldwide.
The launch comes hours before a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 41 with 27 satellites for a competing Internet project, this one from Amazon.
That launch window lasts 29 minutes.