Update 9:38 p.m. EST (0238 UTC): The Falcon 9 first stage landed on the droneship.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket its latest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday evening. The company stood down from a launch attempt on Sunday, but didn’t provide a reason for the change.
Additionally, it delayed the liftoff of the Starlink 11-10 mission more than two hours past the start of the launch window on Monday, when opened at 3:46 p.m. PST (6:46 p.m. EST, 2346 UTC).
The flight sent 23 satellites into low Earth orbit. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East happened 6:09 p.m. PST (9:09 p.m. EST, 0209 UTC).
SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster 1071 on this launch, which will be its 23rd flight. It previously supported four missions for the National Reconnaissance Office, three rideshare missions and NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1071 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ marking the 120th booster landing on OCISLY and the 407th booster landing to date.
