Elon Musk’s SpaceX company achieved a new rocket reuse milestone by launching 23 Starlink satellites atop the Falcon 9 rocket, its liftoff occurred on Friday, April 12 at 9:40 PM EDT. The launch took place from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
This successful launch marked the 20th flight of the same Falcon 9 first stage, setting a record for SpaceX’s rocket reusability. Surprisingly this launch coincided with the 43rd anniversary of NASA’s first reusable space shuttle launch back in 1981.
As per plan after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth. Falcon 9 successfully landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, upper stage of Falcon 9 continued to deploy the Starlink satellites in Earth’s lower orbit.
These Starlink satellites were set to be deployed approximately 65.5 minutes after the rocket launch, contributing to SpaceX’s ambitious internet constellation project. Elon Musk sees rocket reusability as crucial for achieving goals like Moon and Mars colonization and beyond Solar system.
Reusing rockets helps to reduce the cost of spaceflight and allows more rocket launches advancing SpaceX’s vision of space exploration. SpaceX’s continued success in rocket reusability demonstrates significant progress toward making space exploration more sustainable and accessible for future missions.
