SpaceX Falcon 9 Made Sixth Flight With 21 Starlink Satellites

SpaceX made another launch on Monday. Falcon 9 lifted off from California Monday (Sept. 25) to bring over a dozen Starlink satellites to orbit.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches With 21 Starlink Satellites

The Falcon 9 blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Florida Monday at 4:48 a.m. EDT (0848 GMT; 1:48 a.m. local California time). The launch was streamed live via SpaceX's account on X (formerly Twitter); coverage started about five minutes before liftoff.

About 8.5 minutes after launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 made a safe return to Earth and touched down on a SpaceX drone ship at sea.

According to a SpaceX mission description, it was Falcon 9 first stage's sixth launch and landing. About 62.5 minutes after launch, the 21 Starlink satellites were released from the Falcon 9's upper stage and placed in low Earth orbit (LEO).

Less than two days before the launch on Monday morning, Starlink launched from Florida's Space Coast, becoming the 17th mission for a Falcon 9 first stage. That equaled the business's most recent record for reuse.

Starlink is SpaceX's internet megaconstellation. More than 4,750 active satellites are currently part of the network, which is expected to rise significantly.

The V1.5 satellites are substantially smaller than the V2 Mini variant, unveiled earlier this year. The most recent models can supply four times the bandwidth of earlier satellites thanks to enhanced antennae and larger solar panels.

Recently, SpaceX revealed that more than two million people have joined up for its Starlink internet service across more than 60 nations. Based on the data gathered by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who manages a space flight database, it has launched 5,178 satellites since 2019. Before the launch, 4,828 of those satellites were still in orbit, and 4,776 appeared to be operating normally.

ALSO READ: SpaceX To Launch 21 Starlink Satellites on Falcon 9 Rocket Today; How To Watch Live

Starlink Leaves International Users Without Network

Earlier this month, Starlink users worldwide experienced network connectivity issues. Americans, Australians, and other users worldwide reported a network outage on Sept. 12.

Starlink acknowledged the issue on X (formerly Twitter) and assured the users that it would implement a solution. An hour later, the company said in another post that the "network issue has been fully resolved."

During the outage, there were around 33,000 user reports. Several Starlink users took to Reddit and shared the connectivity issue in their area. One said that Africa's network was down. Another person claimed that the Caribbean, Texas, Kansas, Virginia, Australia, Ontario, Michigan, and Manitoba experienced the same thing.

Starlink is the world's first and largest constellation of satellites, and it uses a low Earth orbit to transmit broadband internet capable of enabling streaming, online gaming, video calls, and other activities. The company claims on its website that it is the "world's most advanced broadband satellite internet."

By leveraging cutting-edge satellites, user devices, and their in-depth knowledge of spacecraft and on-orbit operations, Starlink offers high-speed, low-latency internet to its consumers worldwide.