SpaceX Starlink Group 4-1 early morning launch in photos [Gallery]

SpaceX launched its 128th Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday morning, carrying 53 Starlink satellites. They are destined for a 560 km orbit and will begin the fourth orbital shell of the Starlink constellation. An unusual amount of fog came over the launch pad, making for some great photos.

Vandenberg-like fog rolls in over Florida’s coast

SpaceX’s Starlink Group 4-1 mission lifted off from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:19 a.m. EST. Although, if you were watching the stream, you might have thought the launch was coming out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

That is because fog swept over the Florida coastline, reducing visibility dramatically. However, the weather was perfect for launch, going in with a 90% probability of GO. The fog cleared just enough a few minutes before the launch to give our photographers a chance to get some great captures.

Check out more photos from Derek Wise and Jared Locke of previous launches from Florida’s Space Coast at their stores below.

Derek Wise – https://www.derekwisephoto.com

Jared Locke – https://jaredbase.storenvy.com

Foggy views that only SpaceX could offers

One of the things we love about SpaceX is it releases great content from all of its launches. This launch was no exception. Its photographers outdid themselves and released some great photos of the Starlink launch.

Credit: Ben Cooper / SpaceX

It will be a few weeks before we see the next launch from SpaceX. That mission will be another Falcon 9 rocket launching NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission – a fascinating experiment by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office to see how we can use a kinetic impacter to change the orbit of an asteroid.

Of course, now that Starlink missions are on the table again, one of those could pop up any day. So stay tuned to Space Explored for updates on when we will see the next launch from SpaceX.

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