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SpaceX Celebrates 300th Falcon 9 Rocket Landing
SpaceX has achieved a major milestone by successfully landing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket for the 300th time. The historic event took place during the launch of 22 Starlink broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The liftoff occurred at 9:56 p.m. EDT on June 7, with the first stage of the Falcon 9 returning to Earth approximately 8.5 minutes later. The rocket landed vertically on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Falcon 9 lands for the 300th time,” SpaceX announced in a post on X, accompanied by a video of the remarkable moment.
Falcon 9 lands for the 300th time pic.twitter.com/syimP1jcxlJune 8, 2024
This particular Falcon 9 booster has now completed its 16th successful launch and landing, with 12 of those missions dedicated to deploying Starlink satellites. The upper stage of the rocket continued to deliver the 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them 52.5 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has been very active this year, with this launch marking the 59th orbital mission so far. A significant portion of these missions, 42 in total, have focused on expanding the Starlink megaconstellation. Currently, the Starlink network comprises more than 6,000 operational satellites.
It’s worth noting that these numbers do not include the launches of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, which has completed two test flights this year. The most recent test flight, which occurred on June 6, saw both stages of the Starship vehicle successfully landing in their designated ocean zones.
Editor’s Update:
This article was last updated at 11:45 p.m. EDT on June 7, following the successful launch, rocket landing, and satellite deployment.
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