SpaceX successfully launches Starlink
At 4:28am ET on March 24, SpaceX successfully launched another batch of 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. After successfully delivering the payload to orbit, the first stage booster returned to Earth, landing on an autonomous droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.
About an hour into the flight, the Starlink satellites shuffled themselves out into space, entering their initial orbit where they will continue to fan out over time and elevate themselves into their intended, permanent orbit.
Relive the moment
Celebrating 15 years of rocket launches
This Starlink launch occurred 15 years after the first Falcon 1 launch, which lifted off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, this 2006 launch was unsuccessful, but it ushered in a new era of spaceflight as SpaceX continued attempting to launch its reusable rockets to orbit.
During the DM-1 press conference, in the wee hours just after its successful launch, I asked Elon Musk how it felt to have finally arrived at this stage of success. He spoke to all of the difficulties of getting to orbit, and his assumption that they would surely fail… but that it was “Worth trying, anyway.”
