SpaceX launches 21 more Starlinks in first flight of triple weekend flight

In the first of a triple launch planned for the weekend, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites, 13 of which have direct-to-cell capability, lifted off from Cape Canaveral early Saturday morning and successfully placed its payload into orbit.

It was the 187th launch of the company’s Starlink internet relay satellites.

The satellites are designed to provide communications services at high latitudes not covered by conventional geosynchronous satellites.

The total number of Starlink satellites launched so far is now 6,854, according to space statistician Jonathan McDowell, of which 6,239 were considered functional during Saturday’s flight.

SpaceX will attempt two more launches on Sunday, one from Kennedy Space Center to put 23 more Starlinks into orbit and another from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to put the two relay stations of Norway Space’s Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission into a highly elliptical orbit.