Yesterday evening at 8:18pm SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral. It’s mission was to place 54 Starlink satellites into orbit. This brought the total number of Starlinks launched to 3,347 of which ~3,080 remain in orbit.
For this launch I positioned myself at my favorite (and best) viewing location in Harris County – Dowdell’s Knob in FDR State Park. Although there were some clouds on the horizon I still caught most of the first stage ascent through MECO.
That launch set the stage for tonight’s spectacle – a Starlink satellite train. Occurring 24 hours after launch, the satellites had already spread out more that 10° as they passed from southwest to northeast.