Nearly seven years after it began building out its low-Earth orbit constellation, SpaceX now has more than 10,000 active Starlink satellites orbiting the planet.
The company on Tuesday (March 17) launched two new series of the Broadband Internet Relay Units, a total of 54 satellites. The 10,000 milestone. Starlink was aboard the first Falcon 9 rocket, which successfully deployed 25 satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The second launch added another 29 satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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Previous Booster 1088 mission
The Starlink group (17-24) launched Tuesday from Space Launch Complex 4 East in California, lifted off at 1:19 a.m. EDT (0519 GMT or 10:19 p.m. PDT March 16 local time). That mission’s Falcon 9 first stage (Booster 1088) completed its 14th flight with a touchdown on the Pacific-based drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.”
Previous Booster 1090 missions
Today’s second Starlink group (10-46) departed from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Florida at 9:27 a.m. EDT (1327 GMT). The Falcon 9 first stage (Booster 1090) returned to Earth for the 11th time, landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Cape Canaveral launch marked SpaceX’s 34th Falcon 9 mission of the year and the 378th Starlink launch in history.
