SpaceX Caps Record Week With Starlink and BlackSky Satellite Launch
SpaceX concludes a remarkable week of spaceflight milestones by launching 57 Starlink internet satellites and two BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites from Florida.
SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, adding 57 Starlink broadband satellites to its growing internet constellation. The mission also carries two BlackSky Earth-imaging reconnaissance satellites as part of a rideshare arrangement. This flight caps off a highly active week for the company that includes the successful return of two NASA astronauts and a low-altitude test of the Starship prototype.
The 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 ignites its nine Merlin engines to send the 59 commercial satellites toward the northeast. The first stage booster separates two-and-a-half minutes into flight and successfully executes a propulsive landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, the second stage fires its engine multiple times to guide the payload into a near-circular orbit approximately 250 miles above Earth.
More than an hour after liftoff, the two 121-pound BlackSky microsatellites deploy from the top of the Starlink stack. These commercial Earth observation satellites are designed to monitor changes across the planet's surface and provide near real-time geospatial intelligence data to government and corporate clients. The rideshare integration highlights SpaceX's strategy of maximizing the payload capacity of its Falcon 9 rockets.