SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with 23 Starlink satellites – Spaceflight Now

On the heels of the successful launch of the four-person Crew-8 mission bound for the International Space Station, SpaceX has launched another Falcon 9 rocket launch from the Cape. The Starlink 6-41 mission saw another batch of 23 internet satellites heading out to join the growing constellation in low Earth orbit.

The launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 6:56 PM EDT (2356 UTC). The mission concluded the third Falcon 9 launch in just over 20 hours across the company's three launch pads between Florida and California.

This was the 13th launch of a Falcon 9 first stage rocket, B1073, in the SpaceX fleet. The drone, “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” landed after just over eight minutes of flight. This marked the 60th booster landing on ASOG and the 281st overall landing to date.

In the midst of the Falcon 9 second stage's coastal phase, SpaceX completed the deployment of the remaining payloads featured as part of the Transporter-10 mission, which lifted off less than two hours ago from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

As a backstory to both, teams with both SpaceX and NASA continue to monitor the health of the astronauts and the Crew-8 astronaut as well as the Crew Dragon spacecraft as it continues its journey to the International Space Station. The docking is expected to take place early Tuesday morning.

to publish @starlink Satellites confirmed. This mission brings us more than 10,000 operational space lasers to the constellation, enabling the satellites to provide truly global coverage and serve those in the most remote locations on Earth.

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 5, 2024