Excerpts from Spaceflightnow.com... SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at first light Friday with 53 Starlink internet satellites, completing an all-nighter of space operations just five hours after returning four astronauts to a splashdown off the west coast of Florida.
Lighting up the sky over Florida’s Space Coast, a Falcon 9 rocket fired nine Merlin main engines and climbed off pad 39A at Kennedy at 5:42 a.m. EDT (0942 GMT) Friday. SpaceX returned a Dragon capsule to Earth at 12:43 a.m. EDT (0443 GMT), bringing home a crew of four from the International Space Station.
Friday’s launch was the seventh Falcon 9 mission since April 1, a pace near the planned cadence of one launch every five days recently announced by SpaceX founder Elon Musk. SpaceX plans as many as 60 Falcon rocket missions this year from the company’s three operational launch pads.
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