The thick fog didn’t stop the Falcon 9 from launching 15 V2 mini Starlink satellites last night from California.
The Falcon 9 lifted off at 9:57 p.m. PT (03:57 UTC) from a really foggy Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. These 15 satellites form the Group 6-20 portion of the Starlink constellation.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/k2CT9p8HQT
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 8, 2023
After launching to the Southeast and putting on a show for Southern California, the Falcon 9 first and second stages separated, and while the primary stage made its way back through the atmosphere, the second stage performed a dog-leg maneuver that brought it over the Baja Peninsula, Mexico and the correct trajectory for a 43-degree orbital inclination.
It seems, for now, that SpaceX is just comfortable with launching 15 V2 mini Starlinks at a time from California, possibly resulting from extra performance needed, and still maintain the flexibility to get better the Falcon 9 first stage as we all know they’ll fit at the least 22 of the satellites into the fairing as they do for launches from Florida.
The addition of those 15 satellites to the Starlink Constellation brings the full number launched to 4,918. It’ll take a while for these 15 to get to their operational orbits as they undergo checkouts. One advantage of the low Earth orbit they’re inserted into is that if any issues are found, SpaceX is in a position to safely deorbit them and never create space junk.
As for the primary stage on this mission, Booster 1075, it performed its fifth mission, 4 of which have been Starlink missions and the opposite being the Transport and Tracking Layer (Tranche 0, Flight 1). The primary stage successfully landed on the droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ about nine and a half minutes after the lift-off.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship pic.twitter.com/fN8mYlWuev
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 8, 2023
The fairings for this mission were each flying for the sixth time and can try to be recovered by Go Beyond, SpaceX’s West Coast fairing recovery ship.
This mission marked the 54th mission of the yr for SpaceX and is the 215th overall landing of an orbital class rocket between the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy
Up next for SpaceX is yet again one other Starlink launch! A Falcon 9 will launch as much as 22 V2 mini Starlinks from Florida no sooner than Thursday evening, pending confirmation from SpaceX.