Billionaire Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX launched a batch of Starlink satellites — the program’s sixth launch in July alone and the company’s 33rd launch in 2022.
The satellites were launched at 9:38 a.m. Sunday from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This was the eighth flight of the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301 and now three missions Starlink, the company said on its website.
“Deployment of 53 Starlink satellites confirmed, completing SpaceX’s sixth mission this month!” SpaceX said in a tweet on Sunday.
This Starlink launch follows a successful effort from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 22, which sent 46 Starlink satellites into orbit.
About 2,900 Starlink satellites have been launched so far.
Starlink provides high-speed, low-latency broadband Internet worldwide. It is available for service in 36 countries and has more than 2,50,000 users worldwide.
The company has regulatory approval to put at least 12,000 Starlinks into orbit and is asking an international regulator to lift another 30,000 satellites after that.
20220725-120403