On March 4 at 08:24 UTC, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lofted another sixty Starlink satellites to orbit from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

This was the eighth flight for Booster 1049, becoming only the second Falcon 9 first stage to reach this milestone. It successfully landed on the barge Of Course I Still Love You stationed 633 kilometers downrange.

After a brief coast phase, the second stage restarted. The four tension rods that kept the sixty Starlink satellites secure during ascent were released, and the newest Starlink train was deployed into orbit.

This launch was originally scheduled for February 2, but it was delayed twelve times for technical and weather reasons, including an indefinite delay for all Falcon 9 launches following the loss of Booster 1059 during landing on February 16.

Following the investigation, which concluded that the loss was due to damage to a heat shield, L-17 was rescheduled to launch on February 28. They didn’t go to space that day; the countdown was aborted at T-1:24. While a reason for the abort hasn’t been announced as of press time, we do know that it occurred during the final engine chill around the time when the cryo helium loading sequence normally ends.

Merlin engines have completed 1,174 engine-flights across 109 Falcon 9 and the three Falcon Heavies, with only three in-flight failures; on CRS-1, Starlink 6, and Starlink 18. Two-thirds of the engine failures happening on Starlink missions seem suspicious until you realize that SpaceX only uses boosters that have flown many times on the Starlink flights. The new or barely used boosters are reserved for external customers. This lets SpaceX demonstrate that the boosters are good for many uses, while not passing the risk on to paying customers. Some issues may happen, but they only negatively impact SpaceX. In any case, the primary missions of Starlink 6 and 18 were successful, deploying the satellites into the intended orbit.

More Information

SpaceX announcement (archive)

Space News article

Countdown timeline (Spaceflight 101)

Launch video