SpaceX’s 200th Falcon 9 rocket launch looks totally magnificent in these pics
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket notched its 200th prosperous orbital mission on Thursday (Feb. 2), and the business marked the milestone by sharing some spectacular photographs of the spaceflight action.
A Falcon 9 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Area Centre in Florida early Thursday morning, carrying 53 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites skyward.
The two-phase rocket’s reusable very first phase arrived back for a landing — the fifth overall for that distinct booster — on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas just under 9 minutes following start. About 50 minutes immediately after that, the Falcon 9’s higher stage deployed the Starlink satellites into minimal Earth orbit as prepared.
Connected: 10 unusual issues about SpaceX’s Starlink online satellites
SpaceX celebrated the achievement of the mission — its eighth of 2023 now — a number of hours later via Twitter (opens in new tab), putting up three dazzling photos of the Falcon 9 in flight.
A person shot provides a sharp, zoomed-in check out of the flame trail created by the rocket as it leapt off the pad.
In a different, the Falcon 9’s plume seems like a glowing purple flower in the predawn Florida sky. And the 3rd, a long-publicity shot, exhibits the arcing route the rocket took more than the Atlantic Ocean to minimal Earth orbit.
SpaceX introduced a Falcon 9 for the quite 1st time in June 2010, sending a dummy version of the firm’s Dragon cargo capsule aloft. The rocket’s 2nd mission, in December 2010, despatched a serious Dragon to orbit, and the 3rd, in Might 2012, released the capsule to the Worldwide Space Station (ISS).
The rocket’s workload has increased considerably since all those early times, as has the variety of its payloads. In 2022, for illustration, SpaceX launched 60 Falcon 9 missions, a few of which sent astronauts to the ISS. Two of these crewed flights ended up for NASA, whereas the third was structured by Houston-based mostly business Axiom House.
But the bulk of previous year’s missions were being devoted to making out the Starlink megaconstellation, which presently is made up of extra than 3,500 working satellites (opens in new tab).
That range will carry on to grow for very some time SpaceX presently has permission to loft 12,000 Starlink spacecraft, and the organization has applied for acceptance to deploy 30,000 a lot more satellites on prime of that.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018 illustrated by Karl Tate), a reserve about the look for for alien lifestyle. Abide by him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Adhere to us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).