The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket set a record 17th launch on Saturday night (Sept. 23).
Falcon 9, carrying the company’s 22 Starlink Internet satellites, lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Saturday at 11:38 p.m. EDT (0338 GMT on September 24).
The rocket’s first stage came back to Earth on schedule, landing aboard a SpaceX drone in the ocean 8.5 minutes after launch.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
This is the 17th liftoff and landing for this Falcon 9 first stage, a step SpaceX mission description. It equaled the company’s relaunch record, set four days earlier by a different Falcon 9 on another Starlink launch.
Meanwhile, 22 Starlink satellites were launched from the top of the Falcon 9 65 minutes after launch.
Starlink is SpaceX’s Internet megaconstellation, serving customers around the world.
Starlink currently has More than 4,750 operational satellites, and that number will continue to grow in the future. SpaceX has received approval to launch 12,000 broadband craft and has applied for 30,000 more.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on September 24 at 1 a.m. EDT with news of the successful launch, rocket landing and satellite deployment.
