SpaceX completes 20th launch of 2023
March 27, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its 20th flight of the year on March 24th, carrying 56 Starlink broadband satellites.
The Falcon 9’s booster stage came back to Earth as planned 8.5 minutes after liftoff, making a pinpoint touchdown off the Florida coast on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
It was the 10th launch and landing for this particular booster, SpaceX wrote in its mission description. Among its previous flights were the Crew-3 and Crew-4 astronaut missions to the International Space Station for NASA, which lifted off in November 2021 and April 2022, respectively.
Before this mission, SpaceX had launched 4,105 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, more than 3,750 of which are currently operational, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.