After a delay of one day for reasons that SpaceX did not disclose, the company launched Falcon 9 and the Starlink 6-60 mission from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 this morning. Liftoff was at 10:24 into hazy skies.

Spectators reported that the haze — lingering smoke from the weekend’s nearby scrub fire and also the ambient humidity typical of Florida in late may — was so heavy that it was difficult to see the rocket lifting off from the usual spectator spots. Once above the thick air, Falcon 9 was visible to most observers on the Space Coast all the way to first stage Main Engine Cutoff and staging.

Around 8.25 minutes after liftoff, the first-stage booster used for the mission, tail number B1078, touched down safely on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’, stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas. After landing, B1078 has now flown ten successful missions. ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ will now return to Port Canaveral, where the booster will be unloaded, transported to SpaceX’s Hangar X facility at Kennedy Space Center and prepared for its next flight after inspection and refurbishment.

Launch Replay

Payload

Today’s payload was another 23 Starlink satellites, which will join the ever-growing constellation of low-Earth-based devices in SpaceX’s orbital-based Starlink Internet service. They are manufactured at SpaceX’s Starlink manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington. There are over 6,000 Starlink satellites in orbit with roughly 3.0 million subscribers in about 100 countries world-wide.

Booster B1078.10 Record

After today’s flight, Booster B1078 has flown ten missions.

Booster B1078
Flight Number	Payload	Date
1	Crew-6	March 2, 2023
2	O3b mPOWER 3 & 4	April 28, 2023
3	Starlink 6-4	June 4, 2023
4	Starlink 6-8	August 7, 2023
5	Starlink 6-16	September 16, 2023
6	Starlink 6-31	December 3, 2023
7	USSF-124	February 14, 2024
8	Starlink 6-46	March 25, 2024
9	Starlink 6-53	April 23, 2024
10	Starlink 6-60	May 28, 2024

Interesting Stats

• 56th SpaceX launch this year
• 26th launch from SLC-40 this year
• 28th launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in 2024
• 40th launch from Eastern Range in 2024
• 5 days, 11:49:00 turnaround for this pad
• 368th SpaceX launch all time
• 313th Falcon Family Booster landing
• 72nd landing on ASOG
• 269th consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (excluding Amos-6)

Next Launch

Lather, rinse, repeat: another Starlink Group 6 launch is planned for Thursday, May 30, 2024.

Mission: Starlink 6-64

Date: NET May 30, 2024

Organization: SpaceX

Rocket: Falcon 9

Launch Site: TBD

Launch Window: 07:09 PM EDT – 12:03 AM EDT

Payload: 23 communications satellites

Keep in mind that launch dates and times can change without notice at any time.

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