On Wednesday, December 4, at 5:13 a.m. EST (1013 GMT), one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets took out from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. 24 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites will be sent to low Earth orbit (LEO) by the mission.
As per the SpaceX mission description, it was the 24th launch of the first stage of this Falcon 9. The previous record of 23 flights, held by three different boosters, will be surpassed by that.
About eight minutes after takeoff, the first stage of the Falcon 9 made its 24th touchdown back on Earth. On the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” based in the Atlantic Ocean, it made a vertical landing.
Meanwhile, the upper stage of the rocket proceeded to launch the 24 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.
SpaceX’s Falcon rocket family, which includes the more potent Falcon Heavy and the more reliable Falcon 9, achieved yet another milestone with Wednesday’s mission. To date, SpaceX has successfully launched over 400 Falcon 9 missions and made 377 first-stage landings.
