Following the European Commission’s historic launch of two Galileo satellites, SpaceX has launched another batch of its own Starlink high-speed internet satellites. The Falcon 9 launch Sunday evening marked the 29th dedicated launch of Starlink satellites in 2024.
Liftoff of the Starlink 6-54 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Station (CCSFS) took place at 6:08 p.m. EDT (2208 UTC).
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1076 in the SpaceX fleet, was launched for the 13th time. It previously supported the launches of Ovzon 3, Intelsat IS-40e, SpaceX’s 26th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-26) flight, and six Starlink missions.
Just over eight minutes after takeoff, B1076 landed on the SpaceX drone, “Just Read the Instructions.” This was the 80th landing on JRTI and the 301st booster landing to date.
In a social media post, Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, noted that the team completed a five-hour rotation from JRTI to Port Canaveral between the drone’s arrival and departure to support the mission Starlink 6-54.
The 23 Starlink satellites are in addition to the 5,874 currently in orbit, according to figures compiled April 24 by astronomer and orbital tracking expert Jonathan McDowell. Prior to this launch, 633 Starlink satellites were launched in 2024.
On Wednesday, SpaceX announced that the Federated States of Micronesia, an island country in the Pacific Ocean east of Australia, was the latest country to be added to the list of countries where Starlink service is available.
Landing and landing on the drone Just Read the Instructions pic.twitter.com/qbVzhByVZZ
– SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 28, 2024
Departure of the dragon
The Starlink 6-54 launch comes just hours after the SpaceX Cargo Dragon detached from the International Space Station to begin its approximately 36-hour journey to land off the coast of Florida. Undocking took place at 1:10 p.m. EDT (5:10 p.m. UTC).
Tuesday morning’s landing will conclude the CRS-30 mission. It was docked with the ISS for more than 30 days and will return with more than 4,000 books of scientific experiments.
The operation is also another important step toward launching Boeing’s first crewed mission to the orbiting outpost using its Starliner spacecraft.
Before this launch can take place, SpaceX must move its Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft from the forward-facing port to the space-facing port of the Harmony module. This maneuver should take place on May 2.
