On 28 December 2022 at 0934 GMT SpaceX launched their Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 2 rocket successfully from Cape Canaveral with 54 Starlink Gen2 (Generation 2) satellites aboard – the first set of the newest generation of Starlink communications satellites. SpaceX’s Starlink 5-1 mission was the company’s 60th launch of 2022. The successfully deployed 54 satellites were the first spacecraft into a new segment of the Starlink constellation at an orbital altitude and inclination set aside by the FCC for use by the company’s second-generation Starlink network. This Starlink 5-1 mission was to 530 km orbit at a inclination of 43 degrees.
The reusable Falcon 9 first stage B1062 on its 10th flight landed on the ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ droneship downrange in the Atlantic.
David Todd contributed to this story.
Falcon 9 first stage flame shoots out as it flies down range carrying the first batch of 54 Starlink Gen 2 satellites. Courtesy: SpaceX
