SpaceX continued its rapid-fire Starlink deployment marketing campaign on Tuesday night time (May 6), lofting 28 extra web satellites to orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch itself came about at 9:17 p.m. EDT (0117 GMT on May 7) from Launch Complex-40, marking the corporate’s 53rd Falcon 9 launch of 2025 and the thirty sixth devoted Starlink mission this yr. The payload gives worldwide web connectivity by including to SpaceX’s swiftly increasing array of over 7,200 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches 28 Starlink Satellites, Booster Lands Smoothly at Sea
As per a Space.com report, B1085, the reusable first-stage booster, executed an ideal major engine reduce about 2.5 minutes after launch, then stage separation and a retrograde burn to cease its descent. Roughly eight minutes after launch, B1085 efficiently landed on the autonomous drone ship, stationed within the Atlantic Ocean. The mission was the seventh flight for this explicit booster, which had beforehand supported two different Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9‘s higher stage continued into orbit and deployed the 28 Starlink satellites roughly one hour after launch. These newly deployed items will spend a number of days adjusting their positions earlier than integrating into the broader Starlink community, which now blankets a lot of the globe besides the polar areas. Each satellite tv for pc, compact however outfitted with giant photo voltaic arrays, kinds a part of the bigger internet accountable for delivering high-speed satellite tv for pc web.
The May 6 launch demonstrates how shortly SpaceX is shifting to satisfy its broadband targets. In addition to Falcon 9 missions, the corporate has carried out two Starship check flights this yr to show growth progress in each satellite tv for pc launch and heavy-lift functionality.
An increasing constellation would lastly carry dependable web protection to distant areas all over the world. The drive to supply a dependable web connection to distant websites globally displays a dedication to placing the world extra in attain.