SpaceX carried out the first Starlink launch of 2023 with a mission placed 51 satellites into orbit to resume deployment of the constellation’s second shell. The Group 2-4 mission, which was delayed from November, lifted off at 7:43 AM PST Thursday (15:43 UTC) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Previous launch opportunities were forgone due to weather and then “to take a closer look at data from second stage.”