Update Sept. 6, 3:10 p.m. EDT: SpaceX confirms deployment of the 24 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX deployed its 2,000th Starlink satellite of the year when its Falcon 9 rocket following a flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday morning.
The mission, dubbed Starlink 17-9, carried 24 broadband satellites into a polar, low Earth orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened at 11:06 a.m. PDT (2:06 p.m. EDT / 1806 UTC).
SpaceX used its Falcon 9 first stage booster B1075, which launched for a 20th time. Some of its previous missions include Transporter-11, SDA-0A and 16 batches of Starlink satellites.
Eight minutes, 19 seconds after liftoff, the first stage landed on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This was the 149th touchdown on this vessel and SpaceX’s 501st booster landing to date.
