See SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 rocket on anecdote-breaking thirteenth mission this present day

SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets for the 13th time this present day (June 17), environment a original reuse anecdote.

The 2-stage Falcon 9 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Effect Heart in Florida this present day at 12: 09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT), carrying 53 of SpaceX’s Starlink web satellites to orbit. It became the first of three rocket launches in three days from three a form of pads that SpaceX plans to pull off.

The 53 satellites had been deployed into low Earth orbit about 15.5 minutes after launch, as deliberate. But there became action forward of then as wisely: About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage came appropriate down to Earth for a vertical touchdown on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which became stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida flit.

Associated: SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation launches in photos

It became the 13th launch and touchdown for this Falcon 9 first stage, environment a original SpaceX reuse anecdote. The booster beforehand helped loft a GPS satellite tv for pc, a Turkish communications satellite tv for pc, a ramification of spacecraft on the Transporter 2 “rideshare” mission and 9 Starlink batches, in accordance with a SpaceX mission description (opens in original tab). 

Such extensive reflight is a enormous priority for SpaceX and its billionaire founder and CEO, Elon Musk. Musk has over and over said that posthaste and complete reuse is the important thing leap forward that can allow humanity to decide Mars and maintain a ramification of a form of brave spaceflight feats.

Starlink is SpaceX’s constellation of web satellites. The firm has now launched bigger than 2,700 Starlink craft to orbit (opens in original tab), and the quantity will proceed to magnify some distance into the future; the next-generation version of the network might perhaps presumably also in some method consist of as much as 30,000 satellites (opens in original tab).

Nowadays’s mission kicked off a deliberate rocket tripleheader for SpaceX, which additionally intends to launch a radar satellite tv for pc for the German militia on Saturday morning (June 18) and a business communications satellite tv for pc early Sunday (June 19).

This intense 36-hour stretch will proceed a truly busy one year for SpaceX. The firm has already launched 24 missions in 2022, 15 of them devoted Starlink flights.

Editor’s brand: This anecdote became as much as this level at 12: 30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT) on June 17 with records of successful liftoff, rocket touchdown and satellite tv for pc deployment.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in original tab)” (Astronomical Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e book in regards to the search records from for alien existence. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in original tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in original tab) or on Facebook (opens in original tab).  

Michael Wall is a Senior Effect Writer with Effect.com (opens in original tab) and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and militia living, but has been identified to dabble in the living art beat. His e book in regards to the search records from for alien existence, “Out There,” became published on Nov. 13, 2018. Sooner than changing into a science author, Michael worked as a herpetologist and plant life and fauna biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the College of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the College of Arizona, and a graduate certificates in science writing from the College of California, Santa Cruz. To search out out what his most stylish mission is, you might perhaps presumably put together Michael on Twitter.