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SpaceX launches continue into the future.
A Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 more of SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (May 23), at 10:45 PM EDT (0245 GMT May 24). This was the company’s third mission in the past two days.
Related: Starlink Space Train: How to See and Track It in the Night Sky
The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage returned to Earth about 8 minutes after launch. It performed an automated vertical landing on the “just read the instructions” drone that was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This was the 13th launch and landing of this particular first stage, according to A SpaceX mission description. Half of its 12 flights so far have been Starlink missions.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage carried the 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), where they were scheduled to deploy about 65 minutes after liftoff.
Thursday night’s events came on the heels of a double whammy for SpaceX. On Wednesday (May 22), the company launched the US National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-146 mission from California and a constellation of Starlink satellites from Florida’s Space Coast.
SpaceX has now launched 52 orbital missions this year, 36 of which are dedicated to building the massive Starlink constellation.
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