SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 6-47 mission on Friday, April 5, 2024. Image: Spaceflight Now

Update 5:12 a.m. EDT: SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-47 mission.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Friday morning to kick off a weekend that could see three missions for the company.

The Starlink 6-47 mission lifted off at 5:12 a.m. EDT (0912 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), just minutes before moonrise over the Cape.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1069 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 14th time. It previously supported the launches of the CRS-24 and OneWeb-1 missions, along with nine Starlink flights.

B1069 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. This was the 64th booster landing on ASOG and the 292nd booster landing to date.

The mission came as SpaceX prepared for two other Falcon 9 launches that could take place over the weekend: a Starlink mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Starlink 8-1, and a rideshare mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center called “Bandwagon-1.”

The latter is the first of its kind for the company and will send a collection of small satellites to a mid-inclination orbit. Passengers include Capella Space’s Acadia-4 satellite, HawkEye 360’s clusters 8 and 9 (six satellites total) and iQPS’s QPS-SAR-7 or “Tsukuyomi-2” satellite.

On Wednesday, SpaceX also announced a new step towards for its next astronaut mission, Polaris Dawn. The Crew Dragon spacecraft named “Resilience” is preparing to begin vacuum chamber testing, which will “will recreate expected conditions in space by lowering and raising the vehicle’s pressures to ensure Dragon performs as expected both during and after the first commercial spacewalk,” according to SpaceX.

The Polaris Dawn mission is expected to launch sometime over the summer of 2024.

The Polaris Dawn Dragon is headed to vacuum chamber testing! SpaceX teams celebrate Dragon's departure with @rookisaacman, @KiddPoteet, @Gillis_SarahE, and @annawmenon ahead of launching to orbit this summer pic.twitter.com/WFjp7pKK7B

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 3, 2024