SpaceX has efficiently launched a Falcon 9 booster for a file 16th time, highlighting as soon as once more the corporate’s means to reuse the first-stage booster for a number of area missions.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy House Heart at 11:58 p.m. ET on Sunday, carrying with it 22 next-generation satellites for SpaceX’s internet-from-space service, known as Starlink.
The clip under reveals SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket heading to orbit for the 16th time.
Sixteen launches means 16 landings, and about eight minutes after launch the primary stage returned to Earth, touchdown upright on a drone ship stationed within the Atlantic Ocean simply off the coast of Florida.
The record-breaking booster has additionally launched the ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and Transporter-Three missions, and following Sunday’s flight a complete of 11 Starlink missions, too.
Apart from performing probably the most launches, this explicit first-stage booster is particular for an additional motive, too, because it carried the primary SpaceX astronauts to orbit in a take a look at flight to the Worldwide House Station in Might 2020. Within the Demo-2 mission, NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken traveled inside a Crew Dragon spacecraft and stayed on the orbital outpost for simply over 60 days.
The historic mission marked the return of crewed liftoffs and landings inside U.S. territory after a nine-year layoff following the retirement of the area shuttle program in 2011.
SpaceX achieved its first Falcon 9 reflight in March 2017. The corporate’s CEO, Elon Musk, described the endeavor on the time as “an enormous revolution in area journey,” including, “It’s the distinction between … when you threw away an airplane after each flight versus you possibly can reuse them a number of instances.”
The corporate’s flight system permits missions to be carried out at decrease value and higher frequency, enabling area entry to extra prospects throughout a number of sectors.
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