SpaceX Falcon 9 launches 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit; deployment confirmed

SpaceX's Falcon 9, the world's first orbital class reusable rocket, on Friday launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit. This was the sixth flight of Falcon 9's first stage booster, which previously launched Ax-1, the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS), on April 8, 2022, and other missions.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 29 at 5:27 p.m. ET. In addition to the Ax-1 mission, the Falcon 9 first stage booster previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, and now two Starlink missions.

Watch Falcon 9 launch 53 Starlink satellites to orbit → https://t.co/3Cr99l2Cre https://t.co/2SPtX3ketY

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 29, 2022

For the unversed, Starlink is a constellation of multiple satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550km and provide high-speed, low-latency broadband internet across the globe.

Starlink enables video calls, online gaming, streaming, and other high data rate activities that historically have not been possible with satellite internet - with download speeds between 100 Mb/s and 200 Mb/s and latency as low as 20ms in most locations, the company claims.