SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets for the thirteenth time today (June 17), setting a new record for reuse.
the two stages Falcon 9 It departed today at 12:09 a.m. EDT (1609 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with 53 SpaceX on board. starlink Internet satellites orbiting the earth. forward Three missile launches in three days From three different platforms, SpaceX plans to withdraw.
The 53 satellites were put into low Earth orbit about 15.5 minutes after launch, as planned. But before that, there was work, too: about 8.5 minutes after launch, the first stage of Falcon 9 descended to Earth for a vertical landing on SpaceX The unmanned ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink Megaconstellation launches in pictures
This was the thirteenth launch and landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9, setting a new record for SpaceX reuse. The boost previously helped place a GPS satellite, a Turkish communications satellite and a variety of spacecraft on the Transporter 2 “rideshare” mission and nine batches of Starlink, according to Description of the SpaceX mission (Opens in a new tab)†
This comprehensive update is a huge priority for SpaceX and its billionaire founder and CEO, Elon Musk† Musk has repeatedly said that rapid and complete reuse is the most important breakthrough that will allow humanity to settle on Mars and achieve a number of other ambitious spaceflights.
Starlink is SpaceX’s constellation of Internet satellites. The company is now launched More than 2,700 Starlink vehicles are in orbit (Opens in a new tab), and the number will continue to increase in the future; The next generation network version may eventually consist of: Up to 30,000 satellites (Opens in a new tab)†
Today’s mission began with a planned three-arm rocket for SpaceX, which also plans to launch a German army radar satellite and a commercial communications satellite early Sunday (June 19) on Saturday morning (June 19).
This intense 36-hour period will continue to become a very busy year for SpaceX. The company has already launched 24 missions in 2022, 15 of which are for Starlink flights.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on June 17 at 12:30PM ET (1630 GMT) to include news of missile takeoffs, landings, and successful satellite deployments.
Mike Wall is the author of “Abroad (Opens in a new tab)Book (Great Grand Publishing House, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrials. Follow him on Twitter Embedded Tweet (Opens in a new tab)† Follow us on Twitter Embedded Tweet (Opens in a new tab) or on Facebook social networking site (Opens in a new tab)†
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