SpaceX has simply launched and landed certainly one of its Falcon 9 boosters for a record twenty second time.
The Falcon 9 launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:14 a.m. ET on Thursday, June 27. The rocket’s higher stage deployed 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.
The video under reveals the rocket climbing towards orbit on Thursday.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/GH3FjaqbgG
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 27, 2024
About eight minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 booster made a good landing on a drone ship ready within the Atlantic Ocean simply off the coast of Florida.
Falcon 9 lands on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, finishing the primary twenty second launch and touchdown of a booster! pic.twitter.com/8WX1mE4QbH
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 27, 2024
The record-breaking booster beforehand launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, OneWeb Launch 17, ARABSAT BADR-8, and now 15 Starlink missions.
The booster, B1062, first flew in November 2020 and earlier than immediately took its most up-to-date flight on May 18, 2024. Another booster, B1061, took its twenty first flight simply a few weeks in the past, on June 8, so might quickly equal B1062’s record, although each boosters in all probability have many extra launches and landings left in them.
In a mark of simply how routine the Falcon 9 launch and landings have grow to be for SpaceX, the corporate’s stay streams for many of those missions have disbursed with a commentator, as an alternative carrying solely the audio feed from SpaceX’s mission group.
Refurbishing its rockets for a number of flights permits SpaceX to chop prices, thereby opening up area to extra companies and organizations fascinated with deploying small satellites or conducting analysis in low-Earth orbit.
In a extra bold endeavor, SpaceX can be designing its next-generation Starship rocket for reuse. The Starship is probably the most highly effective rocket ever constructed and has 10 instances extra thrust at launch than the Falcon 9. The car has flown 4 instances thus far, with every take a look at bettering on the earlier one. The fifth flight take a look at, nevertheless, would be the first to see SpaceX try to make use of its launch tower at Boca Chica in Texas to “catch” the Starship’s first stage, the Super Heavy booster, because it is available in to land shortly after deploying the higher stage to orbit.
Whereas the Falcon 9 makes use of legs to land upright, the Super Heavy has no legs and so will depend on mechanical arms on the launch tower to safe it because it comes dwelling. Achieving this feat shall be a main step ahead towards SpaceX creating a totally reusable Starship car, which is predicted to in the future carry crew and cargo to distant locations, together with the moon and even Mars.