Updated 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 UTC): Falcon 9 launch. Falcon Heavy static fire moves to Saturday.
Falcon 9 beats the weather and launches 22 Starlink satellites. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Friday night to deliver satellites into orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service. Liftoff from Pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station took place on September 29. 22:00 EDT (September 30 at 0200 UTC) after a weather delay of more than three hours.
Falcon 9 lifts off from Pad 40 into an overcast sky on a trajectory that took it southeast of Florida’s Space Coast. After stage separation, two and a half minutes into the flight, Booster 1069, on its tenth flight, made an arc-landing on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was about 420 miles (675 km) in the Atlantic Ocean east of the Bahamas. The landing occurred approximately eight and a half minutes after launch.
This was SpaceX’s 43rd Starlink launch mission of the year. If all goes according to plan, the 22 so-called V2 Mini satellites will be launched one hour and five minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX recently announced that more than two million subscribers in more than 60 countries have signed up for its Starlink Internet service.
It’s been a busy day for SpaceX teams on Florida’s Space Coast. Early Friday morning, they launched NASA’s Falcon Heavy rocket from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Psychic launch now scheduled for October 12th. Plans to test the 27 first-stage engines tonight have been pushed back to Saturday. Spaceflight Now will bring you live coverage of the launch and static fire.
