SpaceX to Launch Starlink 4-7 With 49 Starlink Satellites

Credit: SpaceX

On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13pm ET (18:13 UTC), SpaceX launched the Starlink Group 4 Launch 7 Mission with 49 Starlink Satellites atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This first stage previously flew on Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, and IXPE. It landed on "The Shortfall of Gravitas" drone ship for this mission. Starlink is SpaceX's low-cost high-speed low-latency satellite internet services. It is planned to have 8 complete shells by 2027, each with about 2000 satellites launched by Falcon 9 and Starship. Starlink 4-7 was the second SpaceX launch in 24 hours after the NROL-87 mission at 3:18pm on February 2. This was the 9th orbital attempt of 2022, the 148th SpaceX mission, and the 140th Falcon 9 launch.