SpaceX launched 29 more of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit today (Oct. 29), sending them up from Florida’s Space Coast.<\/p>\n
A Falcon 9<\/a> rocket carrying the Starlink<\/a> spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station<\/a> today at 12:35 a.m. EDT (1635 GMT).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth<\/a> as planned about 8.5 minutes later, pulling off a pinpoint touchdown in the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX<\/a> drone ship “Just Read the Instructions.”<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Previous Booster 1082 missions<\/p>\n It was the 15th flight for this particular booster, which carries the designation 1082, and some of its previous missions were pretty high-profile. For example, this same first stage also launched the Crew-8<\/a> astronaut mission to the International Space Station for NASA and Polaris Dawn<\/a>, a crewed flight to Earth orbit that featured the first-ever private spacewalk.<\/p>\n The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, continued carrying the 29 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit<\/a> today. They’ll be deployed there about 64 minutes after launch, if all goes according to plan.<\/p>\n Today’s liftoff was the 138th orbital launch of the year for SpaceX, extending the company’s cadence record. The previous mark was 134, set in 2024.<\/p>\n Ninety-nine of this year’s missions have been devoted to building out the Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 8,700 active satellites<\/a>.<\/p>\n