The hazy California landscape and clear skies made the launch especially beautiful.
On July 20, 2023, at 12:09 pm ET (7:09 pm BST), space company SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The rocket successfully launched 15 Starlink satellites into orbit. A couple of days earlier, SpaceX canceled the launch of this rocket with satellites, literally five seconds before the end of the countdown. This time everything went well.
The launch was the 10th for this launch vehicle and the 48th in 2023 for SpaceX. Approximately 9.5 minutes after launch, the rocket’s first stage successfully landed on SpaceX’s Pacific autonomous floating platform, “Of Course I Still Love You.”
SpaceX Conducts ‘Perfect’ Falcon 9 Night Launch with Starlink Satellites
Vandenberg is known for being typically foggy and overcast during most launches. But this time the launch took place on an unusually clear night – only a thin layer of fog covered the launch area. A few hours after the launch, SpaceX released several picturesque photos of the Falcon 9 takeoff. The mission was called “perfect” online for the beauty and spectacle of the launch process.
To date, SpaceX has launched almost 4,500 Starlink satellites, and the company has permission to increase that number to 12,000.
