SpaceX launched 22 more of its Starlink Internet satellites from California early Monday morning (Nov. 20).
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:30 a.m. EST (1030 GMT; 2:30 a.m. local California time) on Monday.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
The Falcon 9’s first stage came down to Earth for a vertical landing about 8.5 minutes after launch aboard the off-course I Still Love You drone stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
According to SpaceX, this is the 15th launch and landing for the rocket’s first stage Job description. That flight sequence will include nine other Starlink launches and the Twin Asteroid Deflection Test, a NASA mission that will successfully crash a spacecraft into an asteroid in September 2022.
Meanwhile, the 22 Starlink satellites were launched into low-Earth orbit 62.5 minutes after Falcon 9’s upper stage.
Monday morning’s launch capped a very busy weekend for SpaceX. The agency lifted off all 23 Starlink satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday night (Nov. 17).
On Saturday, SpaceX launched the second test flight of Starship, the giant next-generation system that will help humanity set up shop on the Moon and Mars. The starship flew well at first, reaching a maximum altitude of about 91 miles (148 kilometers), but eight minutes after takeoff it ended in a “rapid unplanned extraction” — SpaceX lingo — with an explosion.
A Monday morning launch was originally targeted for Sunday, but the company scrapped the attempt after the launch of the booster.
