SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket for the 300th time after a successful Starlink mission on Thursday evening.
It was a busy 24 hours for SpaceX as it had three launches, including Falcon 9’s 300th mission. Along with it, USSF-124, a mission arranged by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command, and the IM-1 from Intuitive Machines, also took place within one day of the Starlink launch.
Three Falcon 9 launches in ~23 hours, completing our 13th, 14th, and 15th missions of the year pic.twitter.com/GIkUzBp9MH
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 16, 2024
The Starlink launch occurred at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and took off at 1:34 p.m. PST, carrying 22 more high-speed internet satellites.
The first stage of Falcon 9 returned to Earth just over eight minutes after liftoff, and made a vertical landing on droneship “Of Course I Still Love You,” which was sitting in the Pacific Ocean awaiting the arrival of the spacecraft.
This specific Falcon 9 booster has only had one previous launch and landing, SpaceX said in its mission description for the flight. Its first mission was also a Starlink satellite launch.
As for the upper stage, it made its way skyward and eventually deployed the Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.
Starlink has been offering high-speed internet to people across the world for a reasonable price.
Most recently, SpaceX secured a license to operate Starlink in Israel and parts of the Gaza Strip. It also recently partnered with Hawaiian Airlines for in-flight WiFi.
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