January 7, 2024, SpaceX on Sunday launched its new batch of 23 Starlink satellites to low-earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This counts as the third mission of SpaceX for the year 2024.
The first stage booster in this mission completed its 16th flight in the upper atmosphere. It previously supported CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat-5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, mPOWER-a, PSN SATRIA, and eight of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite launches.
The first stage booster landed back on the drone ship at about 8:22 minutes of the liftoff.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/VyAT1NMfAD
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 7, 2024
SpaceX is continuously ramping up the number of Starlink satellites to add more numbers to its satellite constellation for various internet and data services around the globe.
Last week, SpaceX released the first six Direct to Call satellites, these will begin a new generation of satellite-to-smartphone services with global service providers.
SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with 23 Starlink Satellites on January 7, 2024 mission (photo credit – SpaceX)
SpaceX will likely receive competition from Amazon’s Kuiper satellite internet services in the future. However, the satellite services are currently in test and may begin commercial operations somewhere this year.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has over 2500 satellites orbiting around the Earth, with that being said, the California-based space exploration company is the largest player in satellite consumer services.