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SpaceX launched 21 Starlink satellites into orbit from a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday morning in clear skies from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, one day after the mission was scrubbed because of poor booster recovery conditions.
The 230-foot rocket lifted off at 8:50 a.m. from pad 40. It was Space X's 52nd launch this year from Florida.
Eight minutes later, the booster landed on by Allen Cone
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 10, 2024
SpaceX launched 21 Starlink satellites into orbit from a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday morning in clear skies from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, one day after the mission was scrubbed because of poor booster recovery conditions.
The 230-foot rocket lifted off at 8:50 a.m. from pad 40. It was Space X's 52nd launch this year from Florida.
Eight minutes later, the booster landed on Read the Instructions offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. That was the 21st time the booster landed on the drone ship and the 88th overall on the droneship.
About an hour after liftoff, the satellites went into a low Earth orbit.
Initially, SpaceX planned two launches from Florida on Saturday. But the 9:03 a.m. scheduled launch from Pad 39A with 23 satellites on Friday was rescheduled to 7:21 a.m. Sunday.
The Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron listed the "go for launch" weather at 90% during the launch window Saturday.
Conditions were poor Friday because of the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby.
Of the satellites, 13 have direct-to-cell capabilities with access to texting, calling and browsing on land, lakes, coastal waters.
Falcon 9 launched the Crew-3 and Crew-4 astronaut missions to the International Space Station as well as two cargo missions
On Tuesday, NASA announced that the Crew-9 mission would be delayed from no earlier than Aug. 18 to no earlier than Sep. 24.
SpaceX Crew Dragon may launch only two people on board instead of four. Instead of flying on their troubled Boeing craft, they would be brought home on the Dragon.
The Boeing craft would return to Earth without astronauts.
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS on June 6 on the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule. They were supposed to be there for only 10 days.
SpaceX launched the NG-21 resupply mission for NASA on Sunday.
On Sunday, the private company also plans to launch satellites aboard a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:02 p.m. PDT. The rocket will launch the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission, consisting of two satellites owned by Space Norway.
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