SpaceX Launches Starlink 10-5 From Cape Canaveral

SpaceX launched another tranche of Starlink satellites to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

Liftoff was at 09:20 AM EDT, with Booster B1085 completing its first mission successfully 8:14 minutes later when it touched down offshore on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’

B0185, whose maiden flight was originally slated for Crew 9, was moved up in SpaceX’s rotation to prove in the booster due to some water intrusion. At the same time, it was being shipped from the company’s McGregor, Texas facilities. The flight was nominal, and the booster will not be returned to Port Canaveral to SpaceX’s ‘Hangar X’ facility, where it will be inspected and refurbished with an eye towards using it for the Crew 9 flight late next month.

The second stage continued to orbit nominally, with SpaceX reporting several successful second-stage burns that optimized the orbit for payload deployment.