Update April 22, 11:52 PM EDT (0352 UTC): SpaceX landed its booster on the droneship.
SpaceX launched its 40th Starlink mission of the year when its Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday night.
The Starlink 17-14 mission will add 24 other broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation, which includes more than 10,200 spacecraft.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East occurred at 8:23:09 p.m. PDT (11:23:09 p.m. EDT / 0323:09 UTC). Upon leaving the pad the rocket flew on a south-southwesterly trajectory.
SpaceX launched the mission using a Falcon 9 first stage booster with tail number 1100. This was its fifth flight following the launch of NROL-105 along with three other batches of Starlink satellites.
A little more than eight minutes after takeoff, the B1100 drone landed on the ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’. This was the 192nd booster landing on this spacecraft and the 602nd booster landing ever for SpaceX.
