SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites with Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launched its latest Falcon 9 just after midnight on Sunday, adding 23 more Starlink satellites to its growing mega-constellation.

The midnight launch included 13 satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities. The launch of the Starlink 12-5 mission from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 00:12:30 EST (05:12:30 UTC).

SapceX confirmed that the 23 satellites were successfully deployed just over an hour after launch. Tracking data confirmed that the satellites were in an orbit of approximately 293 x 286 km, inclined at an angle of 43 degrees to the equator.

Just over eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster landed on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship. This was the 89th booster landing on ASOG and the 381st booster landing to date. This mission’s first stage flew for the second time, having previously served as one of the GOES-U mission’s two Falcon Heavy side boosters. The tail numbers of the launch vehicles that flew this mission for NOAA and NASA in June of this year were B1072 or B1086, SpaceX did not distinguish which one flew on Sunday.

With the recent launch of the DTC Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on December 5, SpaceX announced that it has completed its first orbital envelope for this part of the constellation. At the time of this payload deployment, SpaceX had launched 362 DTC Starlink satellites.

The first constellation of Starlink satellites direct to cell phones is now complete.

This allows unmodified cell phones to have an Internet connection in remote areas.

The bandwidth per beam is only about 10 MB, but future constellations will be much more powerful. https://t.co/wJHMGEzzE4

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2024