Lifting off at 3:10 AM ET (07:10 UTC), the Falcon 9 ascended from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 52 Version 1.5 Starlink satellites.
This batch of Starlink satellites launched on a South East trajectory and were inserted right into a 43 degree orbital inclination. After separating from the second stage, the satellites will now undergo on orbit checkouts while they’re moved into their final orbit.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/fkJy73gUyd
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 12, 2023
SpaceX has now launched orbital missions 39 times this yr, with 37 of those launches being a Falcon 9. The Falcon 9 supporting the Starlink Group 5-11 mission is B1073.
B1073 has launched 5 Starlink missions and 4 customer payloads. The primary stage successfully landed on the droneship ‘Just Read the Instructions’ about eight-and-a-half minutes after launch. This booster will now be brought back to Port Canaveral and transferred to Hangar X, where it’ll be converted to a Falcon Heavy side core ahead of its next launch, Echostar-24, currently scheduled no sooner than September 2023.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/ttm6F0auDU
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 12, 2023
The launch of Starlink Group 5-11 now brings the full variety of Starlink satellites launched to just about 4,600, of which there are just below 3,600 in operational orbits.
The large difference in launched versus operational is as a result of SpaceX having safely de-orbiting failed satellites after checkouts so that they don’t turn into space junk and that essentially the most recent Starlink satellites which have launched haven’t quite reached their operational orbits.
Coming up next for SpaceX is the Transporter 8 mission that’s as a result of launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base this afternoon at 2:19 PM PT (21:19 UTC) and can carry 72 customer payloads to orbit, following launch the primary stage will land back at Landing Zone 4.
