(The Kennedy Space Center, FL) - The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center early this morning. The rocket roared into the Florida skies at 3:24 am EST. Seconds after liftoff the rocket disappeared into a thick cloud layer. The mission was Starlink V1 L17. Starlink is SpaceX’s way of providing internet to those in lower connectivity regions.
After a successful liftoff, the rocket started its successful pitch toward orbit. SpaceX successfully landed their 1st stage booster on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. The last SpaceX mission that was launched on the Falcon 9 rocket did not have a successful landing. The booster for this mission was a reused 1st stage booster.
SpaceX had second-stage ignition shortly after stage separation. The second stage was lit for a few minutes. After the second stage cutoff, the payload and stage 2 went into a coasting phase. About 30 minutes later the 2nd stage lit for the second time. Then we started to see payload deployment one after another. The batch of 60 Starlink satellites were put into orbit, marking another successful Starlink mission for SpaceX.
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