Another 52 Starlink satellites for the global Internet have been launched by the private company SpaceX with a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida: the number of elements put into orbit for the Elon Musk constellation, also crucial, has risen to more than 3,000. for communications in the war in Ukraine.
These satellites will soon be joined by another 12,000 which have already obtained the green light for launch, and probably another 30,000 for which the company has requested authorization.
The launch that took place this morning, when it was 4:14 in Italy, is the 21st Starlink mission of 2022 and overall the 35th orbital flight of the year for SpaceX: a new record compared to that of the 31 flights carried out by the company in 2021.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 already had two space flights under its belt.
About nine minutes after launch, the rocket returned to Earth for a vertical landing on the drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas', which was waiting in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.
Meanwhile, the second stage of the rocket brought the 52 satellites into orbit as scheduled, within about 15 minutes of take-off.
The confirmation came via Twitter from SpaceX itself.