CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — SpaceX successfully launched a group of second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit Wednesday morning.

The company’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:31 a.m. EDT to send the Starlink 6-2 mission to low-Earth orbit, according to the Kennedy Space Center.

On Tuesday, the 45th Weather Squadron gave an 85% chance of good launch conditions Wednesday morning, with liftoff winds and a thick cloud layers rule as the only concerns.

The first-stage booster, labeled B1073, has seven successful missions under its belt:

• CRS-27
• ispace's HAKUTO-R and NASA's Lunar Flashlight
• SES-22 telecommunications satellite
• HISPASAT’s Amazonas Nexus mission
• 3 Starlink satellite missions

After stage separation, the first-stage booster landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.

About the mission

The mission will send 21 second-generation Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. SpaceX first launched these upgraded satellites in February of 2023, but did not do so during the next Starlink mission due to "issues," stated the company's CEO Elon Musk. 

According to the company, which is operated by SpaceX, the Starlink satellites deliver internet access to many parts of the world.

Before Wednesday morning’s launch, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ astronomer Jonathan McDowell recorded the following information on the current Starlink satellites: 3,905 are in orbit, with 3,866 in working order and 3,328 actively operating.

Editor's note: It was previously reported that first-stage booster B1067 would support this mission, but it is actually B1073.