[link to twitter.com (secure)]

The Falcon 9 launch vehicle successfully put 60 satellites into orbit, becoming the first in the Starlink mission, the American company SpaceX reported.

"The successful deployment of 60 Starlink satellites has been confirmed," says SpaceX on Twitter.

The launch of the rocket from Cape Canaveral occurred on Friday at 02.30 UTC (05.30 Moscow time). After launch, the first stage of the rocket sat on a floating platform Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. Previously, the launch of the rocket was postponed several times, first due to weather conditions and then due to the need to double-check the equipment systems.

As the head of the company Ilon Musk wrote in his Twitter, "Starlink's mission will be the heaviest cargo for SpaceX, amounting to 18.5 tons."

Starlink is the next-generation satellite network capable of providing the inhabitants of the Earth with broadband Internet access. The practical implementation of the project began on February 22, 2018, when Falkon-9 launched two test satellites into orbit, Tintin-A and Tintin-B. Total Musk plans to launch about 12 thousand satellites. SpaceX estimated the cost of implementing the Starlink project at $ 10 billion, but experts consider this figure to be underestimated.