Falcon 9

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Friday afternoon from California’s Central Coast with another batch 53 Starlink internet satellites, pushing the total number of spacecraft launched in the network above 2,500, including testbeds and prototypes already cycled out of the fleet.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:07 p.m. PDT (6:07 p.m. EDT; 2207 GMT) Friday with 53 Starlink internet satellites. The booster landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.

Weather permitting, SpaceX teams in California and Florida plan to launch two Falcon 9 rockets Friday and Saturday, each hauling 53 more Starlink satellites to join the company’s global broadband network.

The four-person crew who will fly on the all-private Polaris Dawn mission — set to include the first commercial spacewalk and the debut of SpaceX’s extravehicular spacesuit — will begin training this month for their ride on a Dragon spacecraft to an altitude more than three times higher than the International Space Station.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at first light Friday with 53 Starlink internet satellites, completing an all-nighter of space operations just five hours after returning four astronauts to a splashdown off the west coast of Florida.

SpaceX launched another batch of 53 Starlink internet satellites at 5:42 a.m. EDT (0942 GMT) Friday from the Kennedy Space Center. The booster nailed its landing on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, completing its 12th flight to space.

SpaceX raised a Falcon 9 rocket vertical on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday, ready for a pre-sunrise blastoff Friday with 53 more Starlink internet satellites, using a booster stage flying for a record-tying 12th time.

SpaceX continued throttling up its launch rate with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Friday, completing a rapid recycle with a Falcon 9 first stage booster flying for the second time in 21 days.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:27 p.m. EDT (2127 GMT) Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. A booster that previously flew just 21 days ago powered 53 more Starlink internet satellites into space.

With a mission Friday to deploy more Starlink internet satellites, SpaceX will try to shave nearly a week off the company’s previous record for the shortest time between two launches of the same Falcon 9 booster. The first stage on Friday’s mission is scheduled to fly just 21 days after its previous launch and landing.