SpaceX today launched dozens more of its Starlink broadband internet satellites, plus three piggyback satellites for Planet — marking the first of the company’s in-house rideshare deliveries to orbit.

  • SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 5:21 a.m. ET (2:21 a.m. PT), just 10 days after the eighth launch of 60 Starlink satellites. This was the first time a Falcon 9 was launched without doing a static-fire test on the pad in advance.
  • Minutes after launch, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster landed itself on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Then the second stage deployed three of Planet’s Skysat high-resolution Earth observation satellites into low Earth orbit, followed by a slightly shorter-than-usual stack of 58 Starlink satellites. Planet is the first customer to make use of SpaceX’s Smallsat Rideshare Program; previous rideshare missions involved intermediaries such as Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc.
  • The Starlink satellites, built at SpaceX’s facilities in Redmond, Wash., will join about 480 previously launched spacecraft in a constellation designed to provide broadband internet access. The network is already being tested for military applications, and limited commercial service could begin later this year. (You can sign up here for updates about service availability.)
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