SpaceX launched its twenty-third Starlink mission early morning today. A previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 4:24 a.m. EDT. from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket’s upper stage deployed a batch of 60 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit around 64 minutes later. Increasing the broadband constellation’s size to around 1,385 internet-beaming satellites in space. SpaceX is closer to providing Starlink internet service globally, company officials said they require at least 1,440 satellites to provide ‘moderate’ near-global coverage which will be achieved after twenty-four Starlink missions. Overall, the Starlink network will be massive comprised of over 12,000 relatively small satellites orbiting our planet to connect remote and rural communities to the world wide web.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/ZUdPgagG7R

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 24, 2021

During the twenty-third Starlink mission, SpaceX reused a Falcon 9 first-stage booster a sixth time. Approximately eight and a half minutes after deploying the rocket’s upper stage to orbit, the booster identified as B1060-6, returned from space, landing on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ autonomous droneship around 630-kilometers downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. “This is the sixth landing for this booster and the 78th landing overall,” said Andy Tran, a Production Supervisor at SpaceX. “What a way to start the day… With more than 100 successful flights of Falcon 9 and 78 recoveries of our first stage to date, we've made a lot of progress since then,” he added. B1060-6 first launched last year in June carrying the United States Space Force GPS-III Space Vehicle 03 satellite, the booster then launched the Turksat 5A mission for Turkey, in addition to now four Starlink missions. SpaceX is currently the only company in the world that has landed and reused orbital class rocket boosters dozens of times. To date, SpaceX has landed orbital-class rockets 78 times and reused 58 boosters. SpaceX aspires to develop a rocket that could be as reusable as airplanes to reduce the cost of spaceflight and make visiting space accessible for the general public long-term. Falcon 9 is only capable of being 80% reusable, the company’s Starship launch vehicle that is under development will be 100% reusable.

Deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed pic.twitter.com/Xcbrq66Mez

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 24, 2021

The Starlink network is key to fund the development a Starship fleet that will enable humans to live on Mars and build a permanent lunar base. “SpaceX is developing rockets needed to make life multiplanetary — full & rapid reusability at large scale. Even if SpaceX fails in that goal, the rockets will still be most advanced on Earth,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said, “Starlink‘s purpose is to provide Internet to the least served & to pay for Mars,” he stated. Starlink customers will be supporting humanity’s future among the stars. The company is already accepting worldwide pre-orders of the internet service via Starlink.com.

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Featured Image Source: SpaceX