Falcon 9

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Monday from Cape Canaveral with 46 more satellites for the company’s Starlink broadband network, deploying the payloads in a higher orbit than recent flights after atmospheric drag brought down nearly 40 Starlink spacecraft from the previous mission.

Forty-six more Starlink internet satellites launched at 9:44 a.m. EST (1444 GMT) Monday from Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket’s reusable first stage booster completed its 11th flight to space and landed on an offshore drone ship near the Bahamas.

A Falcon 9 rocket will launch SpaceX’s next batch of Starlink internet satellites Monday into a higher, more circular orbit than recent flights, reducing potential risks from a solar storm like the one that destroyed at least 38 Starlink craft earlier this month.

SpaceX says the effects of a solar storm will destroy as many as 40 of 49 new Starlink internet satellites launched from Florida last week.

Another 49 Starlink internet satellites lifted off Thursday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket, notching SpaceX’s third launch and landing this week, and the company’s sixth mission in 28 days.

SpaceX’s third Falcon 9 rocket launch of the week carried 49 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit Thursday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, continuing the rapid build-out of the company’s commercial broadband network. Liftoff from launch pad 39A occurred at 1:13:20 p.m. EST (1813:20 GMT), and the first stage landed on SpaceX’s offshore drone ship.

SpaceX hauled a classified payload into orbit for the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, accomplishing another successful launch and landing on the second of three Falcon 9 rocket missions planned this week.

SpaceX launched a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office at 12:27 p.m. PST (3:27 p.m. EST; 2027 GMT) Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. After sending the NRO payload toward polar orbit, the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Vandenberg for landing.