Washington. November 13. INTERFAX - The Falcon 9 heavy launch vehicle on Saturday successfully launched into orbit a batch of 53 mini-satellites designed to continue the deployment of the global network of Internet coverage of the Starlink system, the developer company SpaceX reported.
"The successful withdrawal of Starlink satellites has been confirmed," the message says.
The launch was carried out at 07:19 East Coast time (15:19 Moscow time) from the 40th launch complex at the Cape Canaveral Cosmodrome (Florida).
This is the 32nd launch of a group of Internet satellites into orbit since May 2019 as part of the Starlink project and the 16th this year. The previous batch of 51 Starlink satellites was launched on September 13, US East Coast time (September 14, Moscow Time).
The SpaceX orbital grouping now consists of 1,842 spacecraft.
Currently, the company is the largest satellite operator in the world.
Meanwhile, the reusable first stage of the American Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which was used for the ninth time, nine minutes after launch made a controlled vertical landing on a floating platform-the Just Read the Instructions drone, which was located in the Atlantic about 600 km from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome.
In addition, special rescue SpaceX sea vessels had to fish out of the water two wings of the fairing of the rocket head, which, after separation, descended by parachute. The reuse of the fairing allows SpaceX to save up to $6 million when launching its rockets.