SpaceX has now landed the first stages of its Falcon 9 rocket at a whopping 300 times.
The company hit the big round on Friday night (June 7), while launching 22 Starlink broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Liftoff took place at 9:56 PM EDT (0156 GMT June 8). About 8.5 minutes later, the Falcon 9 first stage returned to Earth as planned, landing vertically on the SpaceX A Shortfall of Gravitas drone, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
“The Falcon 9 rocket lands for the 300th time,” SpaceX wrote in a message. Share on X This shared video of the important moment.
Related: Starlink Space Train: How to See and Track It in the Night Sky
Falcon 9 lands for the 300th time pic.twitter.com/syimP1jcxlJune 8, 2024
This was the 16th launch and landing of this particular booster, according to A SpaceX mission description. Twelve of those flights were dedicated to Starlink missions.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage continued to carry 22 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. Post them 52.5 minutes after take-off.
Tonight’s launch was already SpaceX’s 59th orbital mission of the year. Forty-two of them are allocated to build the company’s massive Starlink constellation, which currently consists of More than 6,000 functional satellites.
The above number does not include launches of SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket, which has gone on two test flights so far this year. The latest occurred yesterday (June 6) and was a resounding success, with both stages of the massive rover landing in planned landing zones in the ocean.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:45 PM EST on June 7 with news of the successful launch, rocket landing, and satellite deployment.
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