Jan. 21 (UPI) — Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a pair of Falcon 9 rockets loaded with a combined four dozen Starlink communication satellites into space Tuesday morning from both U.S. coasts.
The first rocket launched at 12:24 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The first-stage booster, on its eighth flight, successfully returned to Earth, landing upon the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket’s payload of 21 satellites was deployed to low-Earth orbit, where they will join the growing constellation of thousands of Starlink satellites that provide high-speed, low-latency Internet across the globe.
Then hours later, SpaceX launched a second batch of Starlink satellites into space from California’s Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:45 a.m PST.
Its first-stage booster, on its 10th flight, also successfully returned to Earth, which SpaceX said was the 400th landing of an orbital class rocket.
SpaceX later confirmed on X, also owned by Musk, the deployment of 27 Starlink satellites with the second launch.
Watch Falcon 9 launch 21 @Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida https://t.co/PfKiVKRIrM— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 21, 2025
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