Success for Starlink launch
April 22, 2022
By Chris Forrester
SpaceX successfully placed another 53 of its Starlink broadband satellites into their transfer orbit on April 21st. A few minutes after its 17.51 UTC launch, the Falcon 9 booster landed on the operation’s floating barge ‘Just Read The Instructions’ ready for future re-use.
SpaceX, as well as a high-intensity schedule of scientific and NASA-related satellite (and crew) launches, has at least two other Starlink launches planned for May and which will add around 50 craft per flight.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell’s statistical pages on Starlink’s progress, including the April 21st batch, says there have been 2,388 Starlinks launched of which 2121 are “working” although this translates into 1684 as being fully operational. Another 251 are in ‘orbital raising’ status.