SpaceX just completed an impressive spaceflight tripod.
two stages Falcon 9 A rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday (June 19) at 12:27 a.m. EDT (0427 GMT), carrying a communications satellite of Louisiana-based Globalstar into orbit.
Ten minutes after takeoff, the first stage of the rocket returned to Earth for a vertical landing on SpaceX A drone ship just read the instructions, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. If all goes according to plan, the satellite will be deployed in an orbit about 1 hour and 50 minutes after launch.
Related: The 20 most memorable SpaceX missions
It was SpaceX’s third mission In just over 36 hours. The company launched 53 Starlink Internet satellites Friday (June 17) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and lifted a German Army radar satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Saturday (June 18).
Friday assignment set a New record for reusing missiles for SpaceX; The Falcon 9 it flew featured a first stage that has already seen 12 launches under its belt. (Sunday’s launch was the ninth for this particular first stage of the Falcon 9, According to the description of the mission of SpaceX (Opens in a new tab).)
SpaceX has really upped its launch pace this year, even before the trifecta. The company’s Sunday morning takeoff was the 26th of 2022, and the half-year isn’t over yet.
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 Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab) or on Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
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