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For 191st time, SpaceX booster successfully returns after launch

At high altitude, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket leaves a red exhaust plume as it launches from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI
1 of 3 | At high altitude, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket leaves a red exhaust plume as it launches from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

May 14 (UPI) -- SpaceX on Sunday morning successfully deployed another batch of Starlink satellites into space and successfully landed its first-stage booster.

The Falcon 9 rocket with the satellites lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station just after midnight, illuminating the night skies over Florida's central east coast.

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The first-stage booster then returned to Earth and landed on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after takeoff. It marked SpaceX's 191st successful landing of the first stage, including Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions.

The mission had been delayed from last month. The mission carried Starlink V1.5 Internet satellites into space as part of SpaceX's ambitious effort to provide global Internet service to the most remote and isolated parts of the world.

On May 4, SpaceX carried another 56 Starlink Internet satellites into space from the Cape Canaveral Space Station, its 27th orbital mission on its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket this year. That successful flight came after a test flight failure of its Starship launch in Texas in April.

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