On April 18, the American aerospace company SpaceX sent 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit as part of the 40th mission starting in 2024. The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with the satellites on board took place from the site of the US Space Force station at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 6:40 pm EDT.
8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage returned to Earth, making a soft landing on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas unmanned marine platform in the Atlantic Ocean. According to SpaceX, this was the seventh launch of this first stage.
27 of SpaceX’s 40 rocket launches in 2024 were aimed at expanding the Starlink group. As the Space.com resource reports with reference to the data of astrophysicist and satellite tracking specialist Jonathan McDowell (Jonathan McDowell), now the Starlink satellite group consists of more than 5,760 active spacecraft.
It should be noted that SpaceX’s 40 orbital missions do not include the March 14 launch of the giant SpaceX Starship rocket, designed to deliver people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond the Solar System. It was indeed the third test flight of the spaceship, recognized as a success, although it ended in its loss.
