As part of the first phase of the company’s planned dual spaceflight, SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida today (May 8). At 14:42 EDT (18:42 GMT), a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink vehicles blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ending a nearly four-hour launch window.

As planned, the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about 8.5 minutes later, landing on an unmanned ship called A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX’s mission description confirms that this was the third launch and landing for this particular first stage. Prior to today, the booster successfully completed a Starlink mission and the launch of the Crew-8 astronauts.

The Falcon 9 upper stage will continue to carry the Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, where they will be deployed about 65 minutes after liftoff.

It’s worth noting that SpaceX has already performed 47 orbital launches so far in 2024, and 32 of them are dedicated to building the Starlink broadband megaconstellation.

In addition, another launch of Starlink satellites is scheduled for tonight. SpaceX plans to launch 20 more vehicles from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California during the window that opens at 22:48 EDT (02:48 GMT May 9).