600 rocket landings! SpaceX notches another milestone during Sunday Starlink launch

At SpaceX, what has gone up has now efficiently come down 600 occasions.

The firm, which was based by Elon Musk, marked its 600th profitable touchdown of one among its orbital-class rockets with the restoration of the first-stage booster that put a brand new batch of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Sunday (April 19).

“Falcon lands for the 600th time!” SpaceX wrote on social media on Sunday. “Falcon 9 launches 25 Starlink satellites from California ahead of completing the 600th overall landing of an orbital-class rocket.”

Lifting off at 12:03 p.m. EDT (1603 GMT or 9:03 a.m. PDT native time) from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, the most recent Falcon 9 rocket to fly deployed the Starlink broadband web relay satellites (Group 17-22) an hour and two minutes after leaving Southern California.

The 25 spacecraft added to SpaceX’s megaconstellation, which numbers more than 10,275 satellites circling the planet.

At about eight minutes into Sunday’s launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage (Booster B1097) returned to Earth, touching down on its 4 touchdown legs on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which was stationed within the Pacific Ocean. In addition to being the 600th protected restoration of a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket since 2015, it was the eighth touchdown for this specific booster.