It is up, up and away for another Starlink mission. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 48 new satellites lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida this morning.
The booster landed on the drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean a few minutes into the mission.
There was a particularly interestingquip thrown into the launch sequence, which was nothing new for the company.
The launch director of the company called out the time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom.
The comment refers to a jab made by the head of the Russian space agency last week after he banned the sale of Russian rocket engines to the United States.
Russia halts rocket engine sales to US, suggests flying to space on ‘their broomsticks’
The United Launch Alliances' Atlas V and the Antares are powered by Russian engines. ULA has enough engines in stock for its upcoming launches, but no statement has been made about how the embargo might affect its missions.
Today's launch showed us that the broomsticks are doing just fine, as it makes up the lion's share of U.S. rocket launches.
The next launch is a crewed one. The first all-private flight to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch on March 30. Four NASA crews have been flown to the International Space Station, as well as the Inspiration 4 mission, in which an all-civilian crew spent several days in a Crew Dragon capsule.
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