SpaceX had a busy Saturday evening (March 30), launching two rockets from Florida less than five hours apart.
The event began at 5:52 PM EDT (2152 GMT) on Saturday, when a Falcon 9 rocket sent the Eutelsat 36D communications satellite into the sky from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
Then, at 9:30 PM EDT (0130 GMT Sunday, March 31), a Falcon 9 rocket carried the last of SpaceX's 23 Starlink broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, adjacent to KSC.
There was supposed to be a third launch Saturday night as well — another Starlink mission, which was scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California during a four-hour window that opened at 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m. ). PM California time; 0230 GMT on March 31). But SpaceX canceled the third mission due to bad weather.
Related: Starlink Space Train: How to See and Track It in the Night Sky
The first two stages of the Falcon 9 rocket, which lifted off on Saturday, returned to Earth as planned, landing on SpaceX drones at sea about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. This was the twelfth liftoff and landing of the Eutelsat 36D Falcon 9 and the eighteenth of the Starlink booster.
Eutelsat 36D was deployed into geostationary transfer orbit approximately 34 minutes after launch. Once operational, the satellite will provide broadcast television services to customers in Europe, Russia and Africa. According to EverydayAstronaut.com.
The 23 Starlink satellites were deployed into low Earth orbit as planned and joined More than 5,600 of their fellow broadband workers there.
SpaceX already has experience with multiple launch days. Just last month, for example, the company launched a constellation of Starlink satellites, the US Space Force's secret mission USSF-124 and the private lunar landing mission IM-1 in less than 24 hours.
Saturday evening's launches were SpaceX's 30th and 31st orbital launches of the year. SpaceX representatives said the company plans to fly 144 orbital missions this year.
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