SpaceX had a busy Saturday night (March 30), launching two rockets less than five hours apart from Florida.
The action began Saturday at 5:52 pm EDT (2152 GMT) when a Falcon 9 rocket blasted into the sky the Eutelsat 36D communications satellite from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
Then, at 9:30 p.m. EDT (Sunday, March 31, 0130 Japan time), another Falcon 9 lifted 23 SpaceX Starlink broadband satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station next to KSC. .
And there was supposed to be a third launch on Saturday night — another Starlink mission was scheduled to take place at the California Vanguard in a four-hour window beginning at 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m.). It was scheduled to launch from Nberg Space Force Base. California time (March 31, 0230 GMT). However, SpaceX canceled its third mission due to bad weather.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
Both Falcon 9 first stages launched on Saturday and returned to Earth on schedule, landing on a SpaceX drone ship at sea about eight and a half minutes after liftoff. This was his 12th takeoff and landing for his Eutelsat 36D Falcon 9 and his 18th for his Starlink booster.
Eutelsat 36D was deployed into geostationary transfer orbit approximately 34 minutes after liftoff. Once operational, the satellite will provide television broadcasting services to customers in Europe, Russia and Africa, according to EverydayAstronaut.com.
The 23 Starlink satellites were deployed to low Earth orbit as planned, joining more than 5,600 broadband satellites in operation there.
SpaceX already has experience with multi-day launches. Just last month, for example, the company launched a series of Starlink satellites, the U.S. Space Force's classified USSF-124 mission, and the civilian lunar landing mission IM-1 within 24 hours.
Saturday night's launches marked SpaceX's 30th and 31st orbital launches this year. SpaceX representatives say the company plans to fly 144 orbital missions this year.
