Originally aspiring to launch the day before but delayed resulting from thunderstorms, the Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:50 p.m. last night, marking the sixth launch of the month up to now.
The 22 V2 mini Starlink satellites were deployed just over an hour after launch right into a 294-kilometer by 303-kilometer orbit at a 43-degree orbital inclination.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/pOFdM1l6Yv
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2023
These satellites will now undergo the standard checkout process while their orbits are raised using their Argon Hall thrusters to attain the correct orbits. Sometimes the satellites don’t pass checkouts and are deorbited by SpaceX. To this point, that has been the case for 11 of the V2 mini Starlinks.
The Falcon 9 that launched this mission was Booster 1076. The primary stage made a successful landing on the droneship ‘Just Read the Instructions’ roughly 8 minutes after the lift-off. B1076 has now launched 6 times, previously launching 2 industrial payloads, 2 Starlink missions, and 1 resupply mission to the International Space Station.
SpaceX to launch 22 Version 2 mini Starlink satellites
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/VBloEKEbcG
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 24, 2023
This booster last launched on May nineteenth, 2023, a 66-day turnaround, which for SpaceX is definitely on the longer side. This specific booster has had as little as 38 days between its third and 4th flights. That is more than likely resulting from quite a few boosters being available for flights.
The fairing halves on this mission were also flight-proven, with 1 half flying for its seventh time and the opposite for its eighth time. The fairings could have their recovery attempted by the recovery vessel Bob.
This was the one hundred and thirty fifth consecutive Falcon recovery and the forty seventh Falcon 9 mission of the yr, forty ninth overall.
Next up for SpaceX might be the Falcon Heavy launching for Launch Complex 39A carrying the Echostar 24 communications satellite.
The launch is currently targeted for no sooner than July twenty sixth at 11:04 p.m. ET (02:34 UTC). The launch can even have each side core boosters landing back at landing zones 1 and a couple of and the middle core expended.