SpaceX blasts off 22 Starlink satellites, land’s rocket at sea

On early Friday, SpaceX launched 22 Starlink internet satellites toward orbit and landed the returning launch vehicle at sea.

One of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets fitted with the Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The first stage of the Falcon 9’s thrusters came back for a landing nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff as planned, touching down on “A Shortfall of Gravitas”, SpaceX’s droneship. 

According to the SpaceX mission description, it was the 15^th launch and landing for this particular booster.

While this was happening, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 kept launching the 22 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. After takeoff, about 65 minutes later, it will deploy them there.

A record-breaking doubleheader included Friday's Starlink launch and a rocket launch by SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which is close to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on Thursday, July 27, at 11:04 p.m. EDT (0304 GMT on July 28).

Originally set for Thursday at 10:20 p.m. EDT (02:20 a.m. GMT on Friday), the Starlink launch was delayed slightly by SpaceX, most likely to wait out the weather. 

The 44-minute gap between Thursday's launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy would have been the shortest ever recorded for two launches from the U.S. East Coast. The benchmark time, which was established in 1966, is 97 minutes.

However, SpaceX decided against carrying out Thursday's Heavy liftoff due to the need to "complete vehicle checkouts." The Falcon Heavy mission will now launch on Friday night, according to the company.