A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink Internet satellites into orbit tonight (Oct. 21) from Florida.
Falcon 9 lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:17 p.m. EDT (0217 GMT on Oct. 22) on Saturday.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
Falcon 9’s first stage came down for a vertical landing tonight, touching down about 8.5 minutes after launch aboard the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is the fourth flight of the rocket’s first stage. As per job description.
The 23 Starlink satellites are scheduled to launch from the upper stage of the Falcon 9 65.5 minutes after launch.
Tonight is SpaceX’s second day of launches. The company launched 21 Starlink satellites from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California early this morning.
Starlink is SpaceX’s megaconstellation in low Earth orbit, providing Internet service to customers around the world. Currently there are almost 4,900 operational Starlink satellitesAnd the number continues to grow.