SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites; landing first stage on drone ship in the Bahamas
SpaceX today successfully placed 23 Starlink satellites in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The rocket’s two fairings completed their 14th and 22nd flight respectively. The first stage completed its 16th flight, landing on a drone ship off the coast of the Bahamas, near Exumas. That landing was the first ever to land in territory of another country. SpaceX negotiated rights to do so from the Bahamas to give it more orbital options launching from Florida.
The 2025 launch race:
21 SpaceX
7 China
1 Blue Origin
1 India
1 Japan
1 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
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SpaceX today successfully placed 23 Starlink satellites in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The rocket’s two fairings completed their 14th and 22nd flight respectively. The first stage completed its 16th flight, landing on a drone ship off the coast of the Bahamas, near Exumas. That landing was the first ever to land in territory of another country. SpaceX negotiated rights to do so from the Bahamas to give it more orbital options launching from Florida.
The 2025 launch race:
21 SpaceX
7 China
1 Blue Origin
1 India
1 Japan
1 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Blue Origin may serve as competition for SpaceX, but it seems that SpaceX has far more on track than just the launch vehicles. It seems to be firing “on all cylinders”, including systems, processes, and the various agreements and licensing necessary to grow its business.
Watching the Grok 3 announcement last night, it seems like Grok may not only soon be the world’s preeminent AI, but also involved in the operational and strategic planning for both Tesla and SpaceX!
“Blue Origin and ULA hardest hit!”
Robert,
You missed the Rocket Lab launch of an Electron, which happened about three minutes before the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch. So that was fun, watching both in different YouTube windows. For a while, there were two upper stages running at the same time.
I’m not sure whether there have been two rocket launches to orbit, before, but there have been suborbital launches. One evening in the mid 1980s, I was hiking in the Sierra Nevadas when we saw a rocket launch out of Vandenberg, then a minute (or less) later was another launch out of Vandenberg. For a moment we wondered whether we should be worried for the survival of humanity, but Vandenberg does not launch attack ICBMs, just test launches.
Edward: Thank you about the Electron launch. Forgot about it. I would have caught it tomorrow morning but better to add it tonight. I will put it up as a separate post.