Update May 6, 9:51 p.m. EDT: SpaceX landed its first stage booster on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’
SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit on Tuesday night.
The Starlink 6-93 mission was the company’s 470th Falcon 9 rocket launch to date and added another 28 satellites to the constellation of more than 7,300 currently on orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 9:17 p.m. EDT (0117 UTC).
On Monday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 85 percent chance for favorable weather during the four-hour launch window. Concerns revolved around the potential impacts from anvil and cumulus clouds, but they weren’t impactful enough to stymie liftoff.
SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number 1085, which made its seventh trip to space and back. It previously launched NASA’s Crew-9, Fram2, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 and GPS 3 Space Vehicle 07.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1085 landed on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions’ (JRTI). It marked the 119th booster landing for JRTI and the 442nd booster landing to date.
