The booster topped with
51 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday (19th January 2023) at 10:43 a.m. EST (1543 GMT; 7:43 a.m. local California time).
The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, hauled the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit and was expected to deploy all 51 of them 29 minutes after liftoff, according to a SpaceX mission description(opens in new tab).
Starlink is SpaceX's broadband internet constellation, which currently consists of more than 3,300 operational satellites(opens in new tab).
That number is ever-increasing, as Thursday's liftoff shows, and may eventually become truly staggering. SpaceX has approval to launch 12,000 Starlink spacecraft and has applied for permission to loft nearly 30,000 more on top of that...
Source : Space