With patches of blue sky peeking through a mostly overcast sky, SpaceX launched 27 Starlink Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California just after 6 pm PDT Thursday.
It's the 5th time this first stage fuel booster cell has been used to launch a SpaceX rocket. The booster landed on the recovery droneship Of Course I Sti by Mark Moran
Washington DC (UPI) Apr 3, 2025
With patches of blue sky peeking through a mostly overcast sky, SpaceX launched 27 Starlink Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California just after 6 pm PDT Thursday.
It's the 5th time this first stage fuel booster cell has been used to launch a SpaceX rocket. The booster landed on the recovery droneship Of Course I Still Love you after separating from the payload portion of the SpaceX craft, which jettisoned its payload into low-Earth orbit about 8 minutes after liftoff.
It is SpaceX's 25th mission of 2025.
The steady stream of Starlink satellite launches has been a bright spot for SpaceX in recent months, as the previous two more high profile Starship missions ended when they both exploded. Starship's 7th test flight ended abruptly when it exploded near the Turks and Caicos over the North Atlantic Ocean on January 16. SpaceX identified a propellant leak as the cause of that explosion.
Starship 8 met a similar fate on March 6 when it disintegrated off the Florida coast following its launch from SpaceX's Starbase in south Texas. That incident briefly suspended commercial air traffic at Orlando International Airport as the debris showered down into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Starship program is being used to carry simulations of SpaceX's larger, heavier and more robust satellites into space in preparation for the company's expansion to add more satellites to its commercial internet constellation.
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