SpaceX launches 56 more Starlink satellites in heaviest payload yet

Jan. 26 (UPI) -- SpaceX on Thursday morning launched 56 new Starlink Internet satellites into low Earth orbit as it expanded the satellite network in its sixth launch of 2023.

The launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:32 a.m. following a 10-minute delay. The 56 satellites weighed a combined total of 19.4 tons, marking the space company's heaviest payload to date.

The first stage Falcon 9 booster had been used eight other times, the most recently in April 2022. It also carried the Crew-3 and Crew-4 missions which brought astronauts to the International Space Station.

That first stage separated from the second stage less than three minutes after liftoff and safely returned back to Earth before a perfect landing on a drone ship off the Florida coast eight minutes into the mission.

SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the satellites just before 5:30 a.m., EST.

The Starlink constellation, which is helping people in remote areas around the world use the Internet, now consists of more than 3,300 small satellites around the globe.

While the Federal Communications Commission approved the 7,500 total in December, NASA has raised concerns about possible collisions and the overall scope of the operation because SpaceX was already approved in 2018 to launch 12,000 of its first-generation satellites.