SpaceX Starlink Launch: Falcon 9 rocket still a record-breaking workhorse

SpaceX launched the sixteenth batch of its Starlink broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Tuesday night, setting a record for its Falcon 9 rockets.

Upgrading a new batch of its orbiting routers has become a matter of routine for Elon Musk’s missile company as it works for build a mega constellation
with thousands of individual satellites in low earth orbit. But this mission puts a new highlight in Musk’s cap.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 has made its seventh flight and landing, a new rocket recycling milestone for the company. The booster previously carried out four Starlink missions and a couple of larger telecommunication satellite launches.

SpaceX landed the booster on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic shortly after launch and was also set to attempt to capture the two halves of the bow cone, or fairing, with another pair of ships. The fairing halves have also been recycled, with one half making its second flight and the other the third.

This mission, the company’s 23rd mission in 2020, comes just days after SpaceX sent a new satellite from NASA and the European Space Agency into orbit.

Saturday morning, another Falcon 9 took off from Vandenburg Air Base to California it carries the new NASA / European Space Agency Sentinel 6 Michael Freilich satellite designed to monitor global sea level rise and to improve weather forecasts.

Initially, the launch of Starlink was supposed to take place just 10 hours after the Sentinel 6 mission took off, but was delayed for a couple of days due to technical and weather issues.

SpaceX is chasing its first thousand Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit as it works to expand public beta test, currently offered to a limited number of customers in Canada and the northern United States.

You can review the whole thing here: