It was a still early morning in Florida, but high over NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, history was in the making. SpaceX launched another group of Starlink satellites — quietly breaking its own reuse record in the process.
A Falcon 9 rocket launched at 1:02 a.m. EDT (0502 GMT) on 13 May, with 28 Starlink internet satellites aboard. The event was the 28th launch of the rocket's first stage, dubbed Booster B1067, which set a personal record for its own reuse achieved only a month ago on 13 April. It then launched 27 Starlink satellites — a detail that now appears symbolic as it flew with 28 this time.
Booster Comes Back, Satellites Set for Orbit
About eight minutes following the launch, the Falcon 9 booster was recovered safely, landing on SpaceX's drone ship Just Read the Instructions located in the Atlantic Ocean. The upper stage of the rocket, on the other hand, proceeded to its mission, targeting the launch of all 28 satellites into low Earth orbit about 65 minutes after launch.
The successful flight was SpaceX's second Starlink launch in hours. In the night of 12 May, another Falcon 9 took off with 26 Starlink satellites from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base, demonstrating the company's quick turnaround capacity.
Starlink Constellation Continues to Expand
Starlink has emerged as the world's biggest satellite constellation, and it's continuing to expand. To date, more than 7,400 active Starlink satellites orbit the Earth, satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell reports.
With launches occurring nearly back-to-back, SpaceX is not letting up. The growing number of successful reuses demonstrates the maturity of the Falcon 9 system — and strengthens SpaceX's resolve to provide affordable space access.
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