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Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Coming off a record-setting 2024, SpaceX continued an aggressive launching schedule with the liftoff Wednesday morning of a Falcon 9 rocket that carried 21 Starlink satellites into lower-Earth orbit. The launch from Kennedy Space Center took place at 10:27 a.m. EST with a first-stage booster making its third trip. The booster landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after liftoff.
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Of the new round of satellites, 13 have direct-to-cell capabilities, SpaceX said.
Starlink is the largest satellite constellation ever deployed, designed to make Internet service available globally regardless of how remote the designation. According to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, there are more than 6,850 active Starlink satellites orbiting Earth currently.
SpaceX ended 2024 with 134 successful launches, a new record after just missing 100 launches in 2023.
