SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites to low-earth orbit (January 23, 2024)

SpaceX launched 22 Starlink satellites to low-earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday, January 23, 2024.

This launch took two delays from January 19 and January 21 sequentially due to unfavorable weather conditions. However, today’s weather was clear for the launch and the liftoff happened with all systems based on pre-launch milestones.

The booster rocket supporting this mission completed its 16th flight to the upper atmosphere of the Earth and previously supported missions including Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, and 11 other missions including Starlinks.

At 8:25 minutes of the mission, the first stage landed on a drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship pic.twitter.com/U2w5gUhmz5

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 24, 2024

The mission control confirmed the satellite deployment at around 1 hour of the liftoff.

With this flight, SpaceX completed the 7th Falcon mission of this year and expanded the existing Starlink constellation into low-Earth orbit.

On January 2, SpaceX sent 6 of the first-generation direct-to-cell satellites to enable crucial connectivity for smartphones without requiring any additional hardware.

This service will be launched through mobile service providers such as T-Mobile and allow us to send text, calls, internet, and connect IoT devices.