Florida: Spaceon run by Elon Musk on Thursday sent 60 Starlink satellites into orbit aboard the Falcon 9 rocket.
The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket was successful with the 12th Starlink batch from the Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Following a platform split, SpaceX debuted Falcon 9 on one of the drone ships in the Atlantic, the company said in a statement.
The Starlink satellites were installed about 15 minutes after they were built.
The announcement marks Starlink’s first mission this month and SpaceX’s 16th mission to date in 2020.
To date SpaceX has delivered more than 700 of the internet-carrying satellites into space.
According to Musk, between 500 and 800 satellites need to be in orbit before they can carry the cheaper internet.
In May 2019, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, launched the first batch of 60 Starlink communications satellites, which surprised astronauts and laypeople with their appearance in the night sky.
Astronomers have warned that satellite constellations such as SpaceX’s StarX network could unduly disrupt evening-watch science programs, such as searches for asteroids and comets that threaten Earth,
Large constellations of bright satellites in low Earth orbit fundamentally alter ground-based optical and infrared astronomy and could affect the appearance of the night sky for stars around the world, a report said Satellite Constellations 1 (SATCON1) released at the end of the month.
Starlink is SpaceX’s ambitious project to launch its own network of broadband satellites, providing low-cost internet to remote locations globally.