Nearly 10 years to the day because it efficiently landed its first rocket stage, SpaceX in the present day (Dec. 14) recovered its 550th Falcon 9 booster.
The landing got here after the rocket’s first stage had lofted 27 Starlink satellites into house, lifting off from Area Launch Advanced 4 East at Vandenberg Area Pressure Base in California on Sunday at 12:49 a.m. EST (0549 GMT or 9:49 p.m. PST native time on Dec. 13).
Earlier Booster 1093 launches
T1TL-B |T1TL-C | 6 Starlink missions
Not like the primary Falcon 9 first stage touchdown in on Dec. 21, 2015, which arrived again on land, Sunday’s booster (B1093) fired considered one of its 9 Merlin engines and deployed its 4 touchdown legs to return to relaxation atop the autonomous drone ship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You” stationed within the Pacific Ocean.
The flight marked the stage’s ninth journey to house and again.
With the addition of the 27 satellites (Group 15-12), the Starlink megaconstellation now has over 9,300 lively items out of the greater than 10,000 which were launched since 2019. The Starlink community supplies broadband web entry to areas world wide, in addition to allows wifi on airways and cell-to-satellite entry on choose suppliers.
Sunday’s launch was SpaceX’s 162nd Falcon 9 flight in 2025, and 580th total.
