SpaceX launches Starlink satellites on 'American broomstick' and lands rocket at sea

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By Tariq Malik, Mike Wall
published

The used Falcon 9 lofted 48 Starlink satellites into orbit on its 4th trip to space.

SpaceX successfully launched a new batch of Starlink internet satellites on Wednesday (March 9), marking the company's 10th launch in as many weeks. 

A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket launched 48 Starlink satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:45 a.m. EST (1545 GMT). The rocket's first stage then returned to Earth for a smooth touchdown at sea on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

"Time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom," SpaceX's launch director said just before launch. The call was an apparent response to Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin, who said "let them fly on something else, their broomsticks" last week after Russia halted sales of its rocket engines to U.S. launch providers amid economic sanctions following that country's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Live updates: Russia's Ukraine invasion and space impacts
Related: SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation launches in photos

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 48 Starlink internet satellites launches from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida on March 9, 2022.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 48 Starlink internet satellites launches from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida on March 9, 2022.(Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has leaned into Rogozin's comments, calling the Falcon 9 — the workhorse vehicle of SpaceX's reusable fleet — a dependable "American broomstick" in  a Twitter post last week. SpaceX has also provided Starlink terminals to Ukraine to help restore communications and internet service across the country and is focusing on cybersecurity to prevent jamming of those terminals.

"Another 48 Starlinks just reached orbit," Musk wrote on Twitter Wednesday after the successful launch. 

Starlink is the giant constellation of broadband satellites that SpaceX is assembling in low Earth orbit. The company has already launched more than 2,000 Starlink craft since 2019, and many more will go up in the relatively near future. 

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage stands on the droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas after a successful fourth landing following its launch of the Starlink 4-10 mission with 48 satellites on March 9, 2022.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage stands on the droneship A Shortfall Of Gravitas after a successful fourth landing following its launch of the Starlink 4-10 mission with 48 satellites on March 9, 2022. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Related stories:

— SpaceX Starlink satellite internet terminals arrive in Ukraine
— SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites forced to dodge Russian anti-satellite test debris
— SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellites could be used for GPS navigation

SpaceX has permission to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites and has applied for approval for up to 30,000 more. Wednesday's Starlink mission, called Starlink 4-10, marked the 41st flight for the megaconstellation. 

Last month, SpaceX lost nearly an entire batch of Starlink satellites due to a solar storm that caused dozens of Starlinks to fall from space and burn up in Earth's atmosphere days after launch. SpaceX has since increased its initial deployment altitude to avoid similar incidents from recurring. 

Wednesday's launch marked the fourth flight and landing for its particular Falcon 9 first stage, SpaceX has said. The booster also launched the Arabsat-6A mission in April 2019, the Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) flight for the U.S. military in June 2019 and the Italian Earth-observation satellite COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 in January.

The first two missions on that list — Arabsat-6A and STP-2 — were flown by SpaceX's huge Falcon Heavy rocket, which consists of three Falcon 9 cores strapped together, the central one topped by a second stage. COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 was flown by a Falcon 9.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.  

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.