The afternoon launch from California of more Starlink satellites is carried out by SpaceX

In addition to adding more broadband relay platforms to the polar-orbiting segment of the Starlink network, SpaceX launched 46 new satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday.

A Falcon 9 rocket weighing 229 feet took off from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg at 2:40:20 local time with 46 Starlink satellites flat-packed inside its payload shroud.

An orbital altitude of 191 miles to 199 miles at an inclination of 97.6 degrees was the goal for the two-stage, liquid-fueled launcher from Vandenberg, about 140 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

A combination of nine Merlin 1D engines powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, the Falcon 9 flew through a sunny sky over California's Central Coast, passing the speed of sound in about one minute. It produced about 1.7 million pounds of thrust at full throttle with nine engines.

Two-and-a-half minutes of engine firing propelled the stack of Starlink satellites into space. As the first stage descended toward SpaceX's drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' positioned in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles downrange, a Merlin engine on the upper stage of the Falcon 9 fueled the payloads into orbit.

A 15-story-tall booster with a titanium grid fin used cold gas thrusters to control its hypersonic reentry. Approximately eight and a half minutes after liftoff, four landing legs appeared from the base of the rocket as the booster's center engine performed the final braking maneuver for a vertical landing.

A booster called B1061, which flew in space on Friday, made its 10th trip into space. NASA's Crew-1 mission launched on Nov. 15, 2020, carrying a team of four astronauts to the International Space Station. Following nine previous missions from the Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, Booster No. 1061 launched Friday from Vandenberg.

As with Friday's mission, Friday's payload fairing was reused from previous missions. SpaceX recovered the fairing shells from the Pacific Ocean after parachuting them into the water for the fourth time.

A single-use upper stage of the Falcon 9 delivered 46 Starlink satellites into an on-target orbit while SpaceX's recovery teams recovered the booster and fairing halves Merlin engine is used for deployment in two burns. It took about 63 minutes for the 46 Starlink satellites to separate.

The Starlink satellites were supposed to disperse and extend solar panels after they separated from the Falcon 9 to begin generating electricity to recharge their batteries.

After completing an automated checkout and activation sequence, the satellites will use krypton-fueled ion thrusters to raise their altitude to 348 miles, where they will begin serving as Starlink satellites.

SpaceX's Starlink assembly line in Redmond, Washington, produces more than a quarter-ton of satellites per year. A laser inter-satellite link facilitates data transfers in orbit without requiring ground stations to relay signals, which have geographical and political constraints.

Using laser crosslinks in the Starlink network can also reduce latency since signals need to travel a shorter distance. Low-latency broadband internet service is provided around the world by SpaceX's Starlink network. With 2,287 Starlink satellites currently in service, the fleet is the largest constellation of satellites in orbit.

According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and expert tracker of spaceflight activity, 444 more satellites are rising into orbits or drifting into operational positions in the network.