SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites from Florida (video)
SpaceX added yet more satellites to its ever-growing Starlink internet megaconstellation on Monday night (Nov. 27).
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday at 11:20 p.m. EST (0420 GMT on Nov. 28).
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth for a vertical landing about 8.5 minutes after launch. It touched down on the droneship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.
It was the 17th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The 23 Starlink satellites, meanwhile, were scheduled to deploy from the Falcon 9's upper stage into low Earth orbit (LEO) about 65.5 minutes after liftoff.
Starship Die Cast Rocket Model Now $69.99 on Amazon.
If you can't see SpaceX's Starship in person, you can score a model of your own. Standing at 13.77 inches (35 cm), this is a 1:375 ratio of SpaceX's Starship as a desktop model. The materials here are alloy steel and it weighs just 225g.
Note: Stock is low so you'll have to act quickly to get this. View Deal
RELATED STORIES:
— SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches for record-breaking 16th time, lands on ship at sea
— 8 ways that SpaceX has transformed spaceflight
The Starlink network, which beams internet service down to people around the world, already features more than 5,000 operational spacecraft, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.
But that number keeps growing, and likely will far into the future. SpaceX already has permission to deploy 12,000 Starlink craft into LEO, and it has applied for approval for another 30,000 on top of that.
