On Saturday, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink V2 mini-satellites. The company plans to launch more than 2,000 of these satellites into space by 2025.
The rocket lifted off at 2:05 p.m. ET from Vandenberg Space Military Base in California and used the same Falcon 9 first stage that has powered 19 previous launches.
Previous missions of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, numbered B1075, included the launch of 16 batches of Starlink satellites, a transport mission, and the delivery of 10 satellites to low Earth orbit for the U.S. Space Development Agency.
The rocket successfully landed eight minutes and 19 seconds after launch on an unmanned ship named Of Course I Still Love You, which was located in the Pacific Ocean.
According to Spaceflight Now, the landing on the unmanned spacecraft was the 149th for the vessel and SpaceX's 501st landing on an unmanned spacecraft.
The rocket's second stage continued to deploy Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit until its engine shut down 53 minutes and 35 seconds after launch, followed by the deployment of each of the 24 satellites.
Sourse: www.upi.com
