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SpaceX conducts first orbital launch of 2022

SpaceX currently has four additional launches scheduled for January 2022, including Transporter-3, CSG-2, and up to two more Starlink missions.

SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites to the fourth shell of the constellation for the first global orbital launch attempt of the year.

Lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Starlink Group 4-5 mission lifted 49 Starlink v1.5 satellites southeastward from Kennedy into a 210 x 339 km low Earth orbit

Starlink is a constellation of satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) that provides broadband internet service in areas where terrestrial options are too expensive, unreliable, or unavailable. Starlink serves more than 145,000 users in 25 countries and regions, SpaceX production manager Jessie Anderson said.

The Starlink constellation, when complete, will consist of five orbital shells; the first number in Starlink Group 4-5 signifies that the launch is headed to shell four.

This first SpaceX launch of 2022 comes after SpaceX set a company record in 2021 with 31 orbital launches, all on Falcon 9 rockets.