SpaceX launches 21 more Starlinks in first flight of weekend triple header

In the first launch of a planned tripleheader for the weekend, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites, 13 with direct-to-cell capability, blasted off from Cape Canaveral early Saturday and successfully delivered its payload into orbit.

It was the 187th launch of the company’s Starlink internet relay satellites.

The satellites are designed to provide communications services over high-latitude regions not served by traditional geosynchronous satellites.

The total number of Starlinks launched so far now stands at 6,854, of which 6,239 were assumed to be functional during Saturday’s flight, according to space statistician Jonathan McDowell.

SpaceX will attempt two more launches on Sunday, one from Kennedy Space Center to put 23 more Starlinks into orbit and another from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to carry Norway Space’s dual relay stations for the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission into a highly elliptical orbit .