{"id":18042,"date":"2019-05-23T17:43:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T09:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-deals-out-a-deck-of-60-starlink-internet-satellites\/"},"modified":"2019-05-23T17:43:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T09:43:42","slug":"spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-deals-out-a-deck-of-60-starlink-internet-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-deals-out-a-deck-of-60-starlink-internet-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket deals out a deck of 60 Starlink internet satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX
SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with 60 Starlink satellites packed in its nose cone. (Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Photo via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After two postponements, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket executed a mission that dealt out 60 Starlink broadband data satellites into low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, right on time, at 10:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. PT) tonight. A little more than an hour after launch, the flat-panel satellites \u2014 which were built at SpaceX\u2019s development facility in Redmond, Wash. \u2014 floated away from the Falcon 9\u2019s second stage and spread themselves out like a deck of cards.<\/p>\n

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his team have been careful about playing their cards right. The first launch attempt on May 15 was scrubbed with less than 15 minutes left in the countdown, due to concerns about upper-level winds.<\/p>\n

A day later, the second attempt didn\u2019t even get that close to liftoff. \u201cStanding down to update satellite software and triple-check everything again,\u201d SpaceX said in a tweet announcing the postponement. \u201cAlways want to do everything we can on the ground to maximize mission success.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time around, the countdown was as smooth as a card shark\u2019s shuffle. The Falcon 9\u2019s soot-stained, twice-used first-stage booster rose from the launch pad, and separated from the second stage minutes after liftoff. The booster flew itself back down on a drone ship called \u201cOf Course I Still Love You,\u201d stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

The successful at-sea touchdown sparked cheers at SpaceX\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., and at the Redmond office as well. Later, Musk reported that sections of the rocket\u2019s nose cone, which dropped away from the second stage during the ascent, were retrieved from the ocean for potential reuse.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the second stage pressed on to orbit, shooting for satellite deployment at an altitude of 440 kilometers (273 miles). SpaceX made use of an unorthodox deployment method that involved having the stack of 60 satellites slowly disperse.<\/p>\n