A brand-new SpaceX rocket just earned its wings. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Tuesday (May 20) at 11:19 p.m. EDT (0319 GMT on May 21), carrying 23 of the company's Starlink broadband satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO).

SpaceX successfully launched 23 Starlink satellites from Florida in the first launch of its new Falcon 9 booster.

Project Kuiper's constellation aims to total more than 3,600 satellites by 2028. SpaceX's Starlink, which has already had more than 8,500 satellites launched since 2019, has nearly 6,700 that remain operational in orbit, according to statistics maintained by astronomer Jonathan McDowell.