The Starlink 11-3 mission added 22 more V2 Mini satellites to the low-Earth orbit megaconstellation. The launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) took place at 5:58 p.m. local time on Dec. 28.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 booster supporting this mission, with tail number B1075 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for the 16th time. It previously supported the launch of the Transporter-11, SARah-2 and 12 Starlink missions.
A little more than 8 minutes after launch, B1075 landed on the unmanned craft named "Of Course I Still Love You", which was in the Pacific Ocean. This was OCISLY's 115th carrier rocket landing and 388th carrier rocket landing to date.
SpaceX has one more Starlink mission planned before it ends in 2024. Starlink 12-6 is positioned for launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at midnight to begin on December 30, barring any weather or technical delays.
In between these Starlink flights, SpaceX will make another attempt to launch 'Astranis: From One to Many' from the Cape Canaveral Space Station. During the December 21 launch attempt, the company experienced a site outage that prevented the launch.
Without any fanfare or explanation as to the root cause of the problem, SpaceX decided to replace the accelerator used on the Astranis flight. It replaced the B1077 and lifted a B1083 in its place.
Assuming all three launches can be accomplished before the New Year, SpaceX will end 2024 with a total of 134 launches into orbit using the Falcon family of rockets, 10 fewer than the company's goal set at the beginning of the year. Two of those flights are on Falcon Heavy, and the rest are on Falcon 9.
In a post on X, Kiko Donchev, SpaceX's vice president of launch, noted that achieving those 3 would also mark "a record quarter for both Falcon and SpaceX." The company is on track to deliver 41 launches to orbit this quarter. | BGNES
