SpaceX completed a Starlink mission from California, deploying 27 communications satellites and recovering a booster on its eighteenth flight. The first stage returned to an offshore platform before the upper stage released the spacecraft. The flight added satellites to the company’s low-orbit network, with deployment reported separately from booster recovery.
SpaceX, the US rocket company, sent a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carrying 27 satellites for Starlink, its internet network. The Starlink Group 15-18 mission reached low Earth orbit.[1], [2]
The launch date was 31 October, while California’s local calendar still showed 30 October.[1]
The lower stage returned to Earth roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff. Booster B1093 landed on Of Course I Still Love You, an uncrewed recovery platform waiting in the Pacific Ocean. This was the eighteenth mission for that particular booster. The upper stage continued carrying the payload after the stages separated; recovery of the lower stage preceded release of the satellites.[1]
Satellite deployment followed about 62 minutes into the flight. Space.com counted the mission as the year’s 118th Falcon 9 launch, with more than 70 percent of those flights devoted to expanding Starlink. The tally concerns Falcon 9 rather than the company’s other rocket families. The verified mission milestones were placing additional spacecraft in orbit and bringing the reusable first stage back to its landing platform.[1]
