SpaceX marks 200th rocket landing with perfect touchdown
SpaceX achieved its 200th Falcon 9 landing on Monday, confirming yet again the viability of its reusable spaceflight system.
The company led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shared footage showing the first-stage booster in the final stages of its descent before making a perfect upright landing.
After delivering 72 spacecraft to orbit, Falcon 9 returns to Earth and completes SpaceX’s 200th landing of an orbital class rocket pic.twitter.com/7Aw52C97jk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 13, 2023
Using the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster for multiple missions has enabled SpaceX to cut the cost of spaceflight and also to increase the frequency of launches.
In a tweet showing the increase in the pace of flights using refurbished boosters, SpaceX said that flight-proven first stages have launched up to 90% of the last 100-plus missions since the beginning of 2022.
Rocket reusability enables increased reliability and launch cadence pic.twitter.com/ijzlhfeXWo
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 12, 2023
Monday’s mission launched from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for the Transporter-8 mission, which was SpaceX’s eighth flight for its dedicated smallsat rideshare program.
The rocket’s payload comprised 72 spacecraft, among them cubeSats, microSats, a re-entry capsule, and orbital transfer vehicles carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time.
The next Falcon 9 flight is set for June 18 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
