A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched for the Twenty ninth time on Tuesday (Oct. 7), one shy of the corporate’s reuse report.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 28 of the corporate’s Starlink satellites lifted off from Vandenberg House Drive Base in California Tuesday at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 GMT; 8:54 p.m. native California time).
The rocket’s first stage returned to Earth as deliberate, touching down about 8.5 minutes after liftoff within the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You.”
It was the Twenty ninth launch and touchdown for this specific booster, which is designated B1071. The report holder, Booster 1067, launched for the thirtieth time in late August.
In the meantime, the Falcon 9’s higher stage continued carrying the 28 Starlink satellites towards low Earth orbit (LEO) in the present day. They have been deployed on schedule about 60 minutes after launch.
Earlier Booster 1071 missions
Tuesday’s launch was the 127th Falcon 9 flight of the yr thus far. Greater than 70% of those missions have been devoted to constructing out the Starlink community, by far the biggest satellite tv for pc constellation ever assembled.
There are at present greater than 8,500 operational Starlink satellites circling Earth, and extra are going up on a regular basis.
