Space.com By Mike Wall 8/26/2023
And the Starlink tally will keep rising for a long time to come.SpaceX launched 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites toward orbit tonight (Aug. 26).
It was a milestone mission for SpaceX, bringing the total number of Starlink satellites the company has lofted to date to over 5,000, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell. (The tally stood at 4,983 coming into tonight.)
The satellites lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 9:05 p.m. EDT (0105 GMT on Sunday, Aug. 27). About 8.5 minutes later, the Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth for a landing on the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the third launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, kept on flying. It's scheduled to deploy the 22 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) about 65 minutes after launch.
More:
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-launch-group-6-11
