Wednesday morning’s SpaceX launch puts on a show over the Outer Banks
On early Wednesday morning, July 3, SpaceX launched a new batch of satellites to low-Earth orbit, and folks on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands were able to catch the show from multiple locations, thanks to the clear sky conditions.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 4:55 a.m. While the launch was reportedly delayed due to technical issues, the three-hour window for liftoff opened on Wednesday at 2:57 a.m.
The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth about eight minutes after launch, heading towards a droneship called A Shortfall of Gravitas, which is stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This was the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, and 10 of its 15 flights to date have been Starlink missions. As of June 2024, there are 6,219 Starlink satellites in orbit, (with the goal of providing internet to remote locations), and SpaceX eventually hopes to have as many as 42,000 satellites in this megaconstellation.
For more information on Wednesday’s launch, as well as upcoming SpaceX launches that may be visible from the Outer Banks, click here.
