SpaceX adds another 49 Starlinks
January 7, 2022
By Chris Forrester
January 6th saw Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch an extra 49 satellites into his broadband fleet and the first launch of 2022 for the business.
The launch, from the Kennedy Space Center at 16.49pm ET, went flawlessly – as did the landing of the rocket’s booster some nine minutes after launch.
Falcon 9’s first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched a couple of sat-nav craft GPS III-4, GPS III-5, and the humanitarian Inspiration4 mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ drone-ship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This was the 35th Starlink launch since 2019 and takes the total satellites orbited to more than 2000.
Last year SpaceX set a new record for any rocket launch business having sent a total of 31 launches into space in a single year.
Its next launch is on January 24th for an Italian reconnaissance satellite.