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SpaceX completes four Starlink launches in a single month

The launch early Wednesday was the fourth in four weeks.

Eric Mack Contributing Editor
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A stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites being deployed in orbit.

 SpaceX

SpaceX confirmed the deployment of a new group of 60 Starlink satellites just after 2:30 a.m. PT Wednesday, bringing the total to 240 sent to orbit in March alone.

Starlink launches are becoming almost as regular an occurrence as the new episode of your favorite laugh-track sitcom in the 1980s. As Elon Musk continues to build up his mega-constellation of broadband-beaming satellites, a new batch of the orbiting routers is being launched on a nearly weekly basis.

The 23rd Starlink launch overall left Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4:28 a.m. ET/1:28 a.m. PT and marked the first time we've seen four Starlink launches in a single calendar month and only the second time there have been four SpaceX missions flown in a single month. (There were four in November.)

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Over a thousand of the small satellites are now whipping around the globe in low-Earth orbit and SpaceX needs to launch about a thousand more in the next year to keep up with demand for its expanding service and the timeline laid out in its license from the Federal Communications Commission.

Starlink broadband service began a limited beta in October that has been slowly expanding in recent months. SpaceX has said it hopes the service will be available worldwide by the end of this year.

The Falcon 9 rocket that boosted the Starlinks made its sixth career landing on a droneship in the Atlantic several minutes after launch as per usual. You can watch the mission highlights above.

At the moment we don't have a date for the next Starlink launch, but be assured it's not far off.

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