First Stage of Falcon 9 Rocket With Satellites for Starlink System Lands in Atlantic Ocean

MOSCOW(Sputnik) - The first stage of the Falcon-9 carrier rocket, launched overnight with satellites for the Starlink system from the spaceport on Cape Canaveral, has successfully landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean, as broadcast on the SpaceX website.

The platform is located about 400 kilometers (249 miles) off the coast of the United States and is called "Of Course I Still Love You." Successful landing of the first stage will allow it to be reused.

The tenth Starlink mission was set to be launched in June but was postponed several times due to technical issues and weather conditions.

Starlink is the next-generation satellite network capable of providing Earth's inhabitants with broadband internet access. The project's implementation began in February 2018. In total, it plans to launch about 12,000 satellites. Another 30,000 satellites are set to be put into orbits with altitudes from 328 to 580 kilometers. SpaceX estimated the cost of the project at $10 billion.