SpaceX launched 27 Starlink internet satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 23 October, Space.com reports. The first-stage booster landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You on its 36th flight; the same booster launched NASA's DART asteroid mission in 2021.
The launch adds to a constellation of more than 11,000 active Starlink satellites, but such missions are now much less frequent. Space.com says the previous Starlink launch was 11 days earlier and was itself the first in more than three weeks, compared with every two to three days at the peak.
SpaceX has ended Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida as it shifts towards its larger, fully reusable Starship rocket, which is needed for the bigger Version 3 satellites and is expected eventually to replace Falcon 9 almost entirely.
Source: Space.com
