On February 16th, 2020, SpaceX tweeted a clip which announces its launching 60 new Starlink internet satellites into its orbit.
Deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed pic.twitter.com/apZ7oTOvNk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 16, 2021
The two-stage Falcon 9 Booster, topped with the 60 broadband spacecraft, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:59 p.m. EST (0359 GMT on Feb. 16). Approximately nine minutes later, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth to attempt its sixth landing on SpaceX’s drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean,” but missed its target.
“It does look like we did not land our booster on Of Course I Still Love You tonight,” SpaceX manufacturing engineer Jessica Anderson said during live launch commentary. “It is unfortunate that we did not recover this booster but our second stage is still on a nominal trajectory.”, reports Space.com
SpaceX prefers to recover its Falcon 9 rocket stages for reuse, but the company has also said repeatedly that delivering a flight’s payload to orbit is always the primary mission.
