SpaceX launches Leap Day Starlink satellites into orbit, lands rocket at sea (video) (Image Credit: Space.com)
SpaceX lofted a new batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast today (Feb. 29) in a Leap Day launch that came after the company delayed its first astronaut launch of the year.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with 23 Starlink satellites lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT).
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
SpaceX shifted into launch operations for this mission, known as Starlink 6-40, in the wee hours of today after calling off plans to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on the agency’s Crew-8 mission.
Crew-8 was scheduled to launch just after midnight on Friday (March 1), but SpaceX postponed it to no earlier than Saturday night (March 2) due to rough offshore weather that could pose concerns during launch abort scenarios.
Today’s Starlink launch marked the 11th flight for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, which had already helped launch five Starlink missions, four commercial satellite flights and one uncrewed NASA cargo run to the ISS. The booster returned to Earth just over 8 minutes after liftoff today, landing at sea on the drone ship Just Read The Instructions so it can be returned to port for a future flight.
SpaceX regularly launches Starlink satellites into orbit as it works to build up a massive megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) to provide global, high-speed internet access directly from space. The company eventually hopes to have up to 42,000 satellites in LEO. The most recent Starlink mission launched on Feb. 25.
The satellites riding on today’s mission were SpaceX’s Starlink Version 2 Mini satellites.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:40 a.m. ET with news of successful launch and rocket landing.
