SpaceX just landed a rocket for the 200th time 

SpaceX launched 72 small satellites to orbit today (June 12) and landed the returning rocket back on Earth, marking the 200th such touchdown in the company’s history.

 

Falcon 9 rocket topped with 72 spacecraft lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:35 p.m. EDT (2135 GMT; 2:35 p.m. local California time), kicking off a rideshare mission called Transporter-8.

The rocket’s first stage came back to Earth for a vertical touchdown at Vandenberg a little less than eight minutes after liftoff as planned. It was the ninth launch and landing for this particular booster, SpaceX wrote in a mission description

More excitingly, it was the 200th booster landing that SpaceX has pulled off during an orbital mission to date. That tally began in December 2015, and Elon Musk‘s company has made such touchdowns pretty much routine in the 7.5 years since.

Related: 8 ways that SpaceX has transformed spaceflight

 

 
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 72 satellites toward orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Transporter-8 mission on June 12, 2023. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The rocket’s upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling aloft the 72 payloads, which included “cubesats, microsats, a re-entry capsule and orbital transfer vehicles carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time,” according to a SpaceX mission description

These satellites deployed as planned from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, separating over a 24-minute span beginning an hour after liftoff.

 
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits on a landing pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California shortly after launching the Transporter-8 mission on June 12, 2023. The touchdown was the 200th that SpaceX has pulled off during an orbital mission. (Image credit: SpaceX)
 

SpaceX just landed a rocket for the 200th time SpaceX just landed a rocket for the 200th time

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