SpaceX sends 28 Starlink satellites into orbit, completes four-hundredth Falcon 9 droneship touchdown (video)

SpaceX launched a contemporary stack of Starlink web satellites into orbit Wednesday morning (Aug. 27), and nailed a notable milestone for the corporate’s continued efforts towards rocket reusability.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex-40, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida, at 7:10 a.m. EDT (1110 GMT). This explicit batch of Starlinks, Group 10-54, consisted of 28 broadband Starlink satellites, which had been deployed in low-Earth orbit (LEO) about an hour later, SpaceX confirmed in a post on X.

It was solely the second launch for the Falcon 9 booster supporting the mission, B1095, which executed a profitable stage separation 2.5 minutes after liftoff. Six minutes later, B1095 carried out a deceleration and touchdown burn, and touched down on SpaceX’s Just Read the Instructions droneship, stationed within the Atlantic Ocean.

This was the four-hundredth profitable droneship touchdown for SpaceX. The firm’s first droneship touchdown occurred in the course of the launch of NASA’s CRS-8 cargo mission to the International Space Station in April 2016, on Of Course I Still Love You. Since then, SpaceX additionally added A Shortfall of Gravitas to their droneship fleet, which is stationed on reverse coasts for launches out Florida in addition to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.