A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared skyward on Wednesday on what was also the 15th anniversary of the first-ever Falcon 9 launch.
The anniversary mission launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, deploying 27 Starlink internet satellites to low-Earth orbit.
Here’s the SpaceX rocket leaving the launchpad:
Wednesday’s mission was the 26th flight for this particular first-stage booster, which previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter-7, Iridium OneWeb, SDA-0B, NROL-113, NROL-167, NROL-149, and 17 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the Falcon 9 booster returned and landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which was waiting in the Pacific Ocean.
It’s been a busy 15 years for SpaceX, during which it has perfected the launch-to-landing system of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX’s first launch of the Falcon 9 took at Cape Canaveral in Florida on June 4, 2010. The inaugural flight marked a significant milestone in commercial spaceflight history as it was the first time that a privately developed rocket of Falcon 9’s size had been successfully launched to orbit.
The mission deployed a prototype of the Dragon spacecraft, called the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit. The uncrewed test flight evaluated the rocket’s performance and the spacecraft’s aerodynamic capabilities, with the latter completing more than 300 orbits before reentering Earth’s atmosphere and burning up later that month. You can watch the highlights of the historic flight below:
The successful inaugural launch laid the foundation for SpaceX’s subsequent achievements, including the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) in 2012 and the development of reusable rocket technology. Today, the Falcon 9, Dragon, and Crew Dragon make regular runs to the ISS, carrying both cargo and crew. The workhorse rocket also deploys satellites for government and commercial entities globally, and, as in Wednesday’s mission, is helping to build out SpaceX’s internet-from-space Starlink service with numerous satellite deployments in low-Earth orbit.
Importantly, the Falcon 9 was also a stepping stone to the development of the mighty Starship, the most powerful rocket ever to fly. The Starship comprises the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft. The 120-meter-tall vehicle made its first flight in April 2023, and its most recent one just last month. The rocket will one day be used for crew and cargo voyages to the moon, and possibly Mars, too.
