SpaceX launches 21 Starlinks in first flight of weekend triple header

In the first launch of a planned weekend triple header, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites, 13 with direct-to-cell capability, blasted off from Cape Canaveral early Saturday and successfully delivered its payload to orbit.

It was the 187th launch of the company's Starlink internet relay satellites.

The satellites are designed to provide communications services across high-latitude regions not served by traditional geosynchronous satellites.

The total number of Starlinks launched to date now stands at 6,854, of which 6,239 were presumed to be functional going into Saturday's flight, according to space statistician Jonathan McDowell.

SpaceX will attempt two more launches Sunday, one from the Kennedy Space Center to put 23 more Starlinks into orbit and another from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to carry Norway Space's twin Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission relay stations into a highly elliptical orbit.