ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 20 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched another shipment of 60 Starlink satellites from Florida on Wednesday morning, adding to a rapidly growing cluster of high-speed broadband communications spacecraft.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off as planned at 8:02 a.m. EST into a cool, blue winter sky from Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center. The satellites deployed into their intended orbit one hour and four minutes after launch, concluding the first Starlink mission of 2021.
The company also notched a new record for rocket reusability when it landed the first stage of the vehicle on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the eighth flight and landing for that booster.
"We have landed the Falcon 9 for the eighth time. This is our life leader. What an amazing morning!" said Jessie Anderson, a lead manufacturing engineer at SpaceX, during a live broadcast.
The launch boosts the number of Starlink spacecraft in orbit to about 955, as the company begins to sell broadband service in the United Kingdom. It already has rolled out Starlink service in Canada and the northern United States.
SpaceX also received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to launch 10 Starlink satellites into a polar orbit on a mission planned for Friday.
Those 10 spacecraft would be the first Starlink satellites to circle the globe around the North and South poles, said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard-​Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
"Launching up to 520 Starlinks to a sun-synchronous polar orbit was part of the SpaceX plan as filed in April," McDowell said.
SpaceX has worked to address concerns raised by experts like McDowell about Starlink that such satellites can interrupt astronomical observations.
SpaceX provides data on the orbit of its satellites, but McDowell and others said such data doesn't allow accurate predictions of where the spacecraft will be in a week or two.
"Existing data is not good enough," McDowell said in an interview last week. "It's important both for space safety -- avoiding collisions -- and for astronomy, for sufficiently accurate prediction of when a satellite might pass through your telescope's field of view."
A similar plea for better data came recently from Moriba Jah, associate professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He published an article asking for better data on large clusters of satellites like Starlink that are planned by other companies.
"If we want space safety and reliability, people need to be able to say I know where Starlinks will be next week, but we have no way of knowing that," Jah said in an interview.
Such data should include SpaceX's automated formula for moving Starlink satellites in case of an imminent collision, Jah said.
NASA, SpaceX launch historic mission to space station
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Crew-1 lifts off from Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
On board Dragon are NASA astronauts commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Shannon Walker, as well as Japanese mission specialist Soichi Noguchi. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
The Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts aboard is headed for the International Space Station, a 27 1/2-hour journey. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
NASA astronauts Shannon Walker (L to R), Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi wear SpaceX spacesuits wave as they walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to depart for launch Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo
Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi engages with the crowd as he prepares to depart. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo
NASA astronauts Shannon Walker (L to R) and Mike Hopkins and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi prepare to depart for the launch pad. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo
The astronauts wave before they ride to Complex 39A to board the Dragon spacecraft as the first operational crew to be launched on SpaceX equipment to the International Space Station. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine makes comments during a press conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 13. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
An alligator starts to cross a road while photographers set up remote cameras as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is being prepared to
launch the first operational Crew Dragon spacecraft on November 13. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft atop is seen on the pad at Launch Complex 39A after being rolled out overnight as preparations continue for the Crew-1 mission on November 10. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen as it is rolled out of the horizontal integration facility at Launch Complex 39A on November 9. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo
Japanese space agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi speaks to members of the media after arriving from Houston at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on November 8 ahead of SpaceX's Crew-1 mission. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo
NASA astronauts Shannon Walker (L to R) Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, are seen after arriving at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of SpaceX's Crew-1 mission. Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA | License Photo
NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts participate in crew equipment interface testing at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., on September 24. Photo courtesy of SpaceX | License Photo
