SpaceX achieved a major milestone on Monday: landing its 200th rocket. This feat occurred just eight minutes after SpaceX launched its latest rideshare mission called Transporter-8.
The rocket, which launched for its ninth flight, blasted off from Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying with it 72 small satellites as part of a rideshare program.
SpaceX captured the occasion in high-definition video, which features a view of the booster returning to Earth only a few miles from where it launched. The fiery touchdown marked the 200th landing for SpaceX.
It wasn’t long ago that the industry thought SpaceX was crazy for thinking that rocket’s could be reusable. The company achieved its first success in 2015, touching down on a designated landing pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and changing the way we look at spaceflight.
SpaceX also made improvements to its Falcon 9 rocket, which enhanced its reusability efforts. To that end, the company says that the vast majority of the 61 rockets the company launched in 2022 were previously flown.
Reusability helps to drive down cost as the company says that approximately 90 percent of the rocket’s cost comes from the first stage booster. By reusing boosters, the company can lower the cost of access to space, launch more frequently, and ultimately make space accessible.
On Monday, SpaceX not only landed its 200th rocket, but the company also launched two different Falcon 9 rockets from different launch pads on different coasts. The first carried a batch of SpaceX’s own Starlink internet satellites, while the second carried a host of 72 different small satellites.
Tucked inside the stack of small satellites were various satellites to be used for student research, in-space technology, and a host of others for organizations like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Also on board was a small satellite sponsored by the Vatican. Called Spei Satelles, which is Latin for satellites of hope, the breadbox-sized satellite contains a small chip that was engraved with a speech the Pope gave during the coronavirus pandemic. The cubesat it is flying on was designed by Italian university students in collaboration with the Vatican and the Italian Space Agency.