As the low clouds smothered the launch site, a Falcon 9 rocket carried 46 Starlink satellites to space after liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday evening.
Launch of the two-stage rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies occurred at 6:39 from Space Launch Complex-4 on South Base, en route to deliver the satellites into low-Earth orbit.
The rocket climbed away from the Central Coast as a heavy marine layer embraced the coastline and spoiled the webcast camera’s view of the liftoff.
However, clear skies elsewhere on the Central Coast, including east of Orcutt, allowed spectators to capture the departure.
Minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s payload fairing separated as planned ahead of deploying the stack of satellites.
SpaceX confirmed the deployment had cccurred approximately one hour after launch as planned.
The rocket’s first stage, which has already flown previous NASA and Starlink missions from the West Coast, successfully landed approximately eight minutes later on the drone ship dubbed “Of Course I Still Love You,” as it remained stationed in the Pacific Ocean south of the Central Coast.
Sunday’s mission marked the sixth for the Falcon 9 first-stage booster.
This was the 29th launch of 2022 for SpaceX from both Vandenberg and Florida, and the 167th overall launch for SpaceX.
Starlink, a SpaceX-owned firm, is a constellation of satellites to provide Internet access around the globe including remote areas. Several residents of especially remote areas in Santa Barbara County have signed up for the service.
SpaceX recently unveiled a new maritime service for Starlink, promising to provide a high-speed, low-latency internet access.
However, that access won’t be cheap, with Starlink saying the service will cost $5,000 a month, with a one-time hardware cost of $10,000 for two high-performance terminals.
Customers can pause service since they will pay in monthly increments.
The firm has envisioned customers ranging from merchant vessels to oil rigs to premium yachts, with Starlink contending the service is “rugged enough to withstand rocket landings.”
“In addition to withstanding extreme cold, heat, hail, sleet, heavy rain, and gale force winds, Starlink also holds up against rocket engines,” the firm said.
“Starlink is currently being used to get high-quality video of SpaceX rocket landings at sea, providing continuous coverage in the face of engines capable of generating up to 190,000 pounds of force.”
Jonathan McDowell, a Massachusetts-based astronomer who keeps a detailed tally of just-launched and orbiting satellites, said Falcon rocket missions have carried 2,759 Starlink satellites, with 2,506 still in orbit as of July 9.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.