Another 48 Starlink satellites launched
March 10, 2022
By Chris Forrester
A Falcon 9 rocket, using a booster that had already flown four times, placed 48 Starlink satellites into space on March 9th. It was SpaceX’s tenth successful flight in as many weeks.
The launch took place from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 15.45 GMT. The rocket’s booster made a perfect landing – despite a few anxious seconds when the team lost the rocket’s video signal – on SpaceX’s floating drone-ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’.
SpaceX’s launch director took a swing at Russia just ahead of the launch, saying: “Time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom,” – a direct rebuttal of Russia’s space boss who said OneWeb should “let them fly on something else, their broomsticks,” having cancelled a Russian launch for OneWeb.
March 9th also saw a second truck-load of Starlink dishes and terminals delivered to Ukraine.