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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the last batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on Sunday and successfully returned to Earth, landing on its Of Course I Still Love You drone in the Atlantic Ocean, the company said.
Sunday’s mission marked a ninth flight and a record landing for this Falcon 9 booster, said SpaceX, which was part of five previous Starlink launches and the DM-1 mission for its Crew Dragon capsule.
Satellites are part of the growing Starlink constellation, which SpaceX is building to provide Internet connectivity to rural areas of Earth. The company has authorization to launch 12,000 satellites as part of the project, and has more than 1,000 in orbit to date.
Starlink also has some 10,000 users in the beta program it launched last year. The Starlink kit, which comes with a router and antenna, costs $ 499, with a monthly subscription of $ 99 for internet speeds between 70 and 130 Mbps. The company opened pre-orders for Starlink in the US, Canada and UK last month, with a deposit fee of $ 99.
Sunday’s launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center was the second in recent days for SpaceX, which on Thursday sent another of its Falcon 9 rockets from the Cape Canaveral space station. This launch also put 60 satellites into orbit. Starlink’s next launch is tentatively scheduled for March 21, from Cape Canaveral.
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