SpaceX successfully launched 46 of the company's own Starlink broadband Internet communications satellites from Florida on Monday.

The mission, Starlink 4-8, was the first since the company lost about 40 of the Starlink satellites on Feb. 4 during a solar storm that thickened the air and caused the satellites to burn up as they crashed back through the atmosphere.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off as planned at 9:44 a.m. EST into a sunny, blue sky from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station near Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX canceled a previous attempt planned on Sunday due to weather concerns that could have had an impact on the recovery of the rocket's first stage booster on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean.

The company recovered that booster successfully after Monday's launch on the robotic barge, A Shortfall of Gravitas.

The booster previously was used to launch astronauts on the Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station in May 2020, as well as five earlier Starlink missions, a cargo mission to the space station and three other satellite missions.

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US billionaire announces three more ambitious SpaceX flights
Washington (AFP) Feb 14, 2022
US billionaire Jared Isaacman, who chartered the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight, announced Monday three more private missions with SpaceX - which will include spacewalking and culminate in the first crewed flight of the next-generation Starship rocket. The first, named Polaris Dawn, will take place no sooner than the fourth quarter of this year, and will be commanded by Isaacman, the founder of payment processing company Shift4. The program represents a new step for the commercial space ... read more