SpaceX launches another batch of 22 Starlink satellites

Oct. 5 (UPI) -- SpaceX early Thursday launched a Flacon 9 rocket into space with a payload of 22 Starlink satellites.

The vehicle launched at 1:36 a.m. EDT Thursday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The launch window had opened at 10:45 p.m., but liftoff occurred after several delays, with no reason given, though earlier Wednesday, SpaceX reported that weather was only 50% favorable for liftoff.

SpaceX confirmed on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that 22 satellites were deployed into low-Earth orbit, where they will join Starlink's growing constellation of some 5,000 orbitals that provide high-speed, low-latency Internet worldwide.

The first-stage booster, which was on its eighth flight, returned to Earth, where it landed upon SpaceX's Just Read the Instructions droneship that was awaiting its arrival in the Atlantic Ocean.