The Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:01 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Pad 40.
The first-stage booster launched for the 22nd time, including Crew-6 and 17 previous Starlink missions.
About 8 minutes after liftoff, the booster landed on "A Shortfall of Gravitas" drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 119th touchdown on the droneship and the 480th to date for SpaceX in Florida and California.
This year, it was the 91st Falcon 9 launch, according to SpaceFlight Now.
There are more than 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell.
On Thursday, Starlink users reported a rare full network outage of internet service. It began at 4 p.m. About 2 1/2 hours later, SpaceX announced most service had been restored. Then, 1 1/2 hours later, full service was back, Starlink reported.
"The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network," Michael Nicholls, vice president of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX wrote on X. "We apologize for the temporary disruption in our service; we are deeply committed to providing a highly reliable network, and will fully root cause this issue and ensure it does not occur again."
There are more than 6 million Starlink customers worldwide, including 2 million in the United States after debuting in 2021.
The next SpaceX launch is scheduled for 8:55 p.m. PDT Saturday from Vandenbrug Space Force Station's Pad 4E in California. An additional 24 Starlink satellites are scheduled for deployment.
SpaceX launches 24 satellites to polar areas to boost Internet access
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 27, 2025 -
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Lompoc, Calif.
The mission put 24 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. It will deploy the satellites into a polar orbit to boost internet service in polar regions.
The Starlink 17-2 mission launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 9:31 p.m. PDT.
The Falcon 9 ship with tail number B1075 took its 19th trip to space, including 16 Starlink missions.
About 8 1/2 minutes after liftoff, the ship landed on the droneship "Of Course I Still Love You," in the Pacific Ocean.
It was the 142nd landing for this vessel and the 481st booster landing for SpaceX.
There are more than 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell.
On Thursday, Starlink users reported a rare full network outage of Internet service. It began at 4 p.m. About 2 1/2 hours later, SpaceX announced most service had been restored. Then, 1 1/2 hours later, full service was back, Starlink reported.
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