The Falcon 9 took off from the Cape Canaveral space launch complex (central-east Florida) at 03:13 local time, before dawn.
A new batch of 60 satellites from the Starlink internet network went into orbit this Thursday with a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX.
The maneuver was done in less than 10 minutes and then the rocket landed again on a platform located in the middle of the sea.
The Falcon 9 took off from the Cape Canaveral space launch complex (central-east Florida) at 03:13 local time, before dawn.
Just over eight minutes later, the first phase of the rocket, which has already been used six times, landed on the floating platform called “Just read the instructions”, which was parked in the Atlantic Ocean, about 630 kilometers from the coast. from Florida.
The mission was originally planned for Monday night (March 9), but was delayed so SpaceX could conduct more pre-launch checks.
Consistent with this, SpaceX has carried out 21 missions to put 60 satellites each time in space for the internet network that the company owned by Elon Musk is creating.
So far this year SpaceX has made seven launches like this Thursday.
The company has a $ 2.6 billion contract with NASA, signed in 2014, to transport astronauts and cargo from US soil to the International Space Station (ISS).
After a successful test mission in July 2020, on November 15, it transported the American astronauts Shannon Walker, Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover, as well as the Japanese Soichi Noguchi, to the ISS in a Dragon capsule.
A second manned operational mission to the ISS in a SpaceX capsule is scheduled to launch on April 22, at the earliest date, with US Space Agency (NASA) astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur (female). , Akihiko Hoshide from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency (ESA).
