A Dawning Launch at Kennedy, as Falcon 9 soars up with Starlink G4-18 satellites.
SpaceX launch mission added another 53 internet relay satellites to Orbit.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022, SpaceX launched Falcon 9 Block 5 number B1052.5 with an additional 53 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Lift-off was at 6:59 ET, or 10:59 UTC which was delayed and rescheduled half an hour forward . The mission was named v1.5 L18, or Group 4-18.
The B1052 first stage 'core' of this mission previously used to launch its Arabsat-6A mission and the Space Test Project-2 flight for the U.S. Space Force (both as one of two side boosters on a Falcon Heavy rocket); as well as the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 satellite for Italy and an earlier Starlink G4-10 flight.
After separating the stages, the first stage of the rocket booster returned to Earth and landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean 636 km away. The ship Doug followed to recover the fairing shells 645 km away from the Cape.