SpaceX Launches 22 Starlink Satellites from the West Coast into Orbit

On Friday night, SpaceX sent 22 Starlink satellites into orbit.

At at 4:34 p.m. PST, the Elon Musk-owned spacecraft contractor televised the successful launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on X.

At 4:42 p.m., the Falcon 9 first stage booster touched down on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which was positioned in the Pacific Ocean, following a brief flight that saw it detach barely two minutes after launch. At 4:43 p.m., the satellites entered low-Earth orbit.

With the addition of 22 Starlink satellites, SpaceX now has a constellation of over 5,000 orbitals that can deliver high-speed, low-latency Internet to any part of the world.

After seven earlier Starlink flights, this was the Falcon 9’s fourteenth flight.