Early Tuesday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying the Indonesian telecom satellite Merah Putih into geo-transfer orbit. The first stage booster of the previously flown Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket landed successfully on the drone ship “Of Course I Still love You” and will fly again for a third time later this year.
Falcon 9 is the only rocket that can be reused for multiple missions. The Falcon 9 success rate so far has been 57 out of 59 missions. The Block 5 boosters are expected to fly more than 10 times.
Here are some images from the launch and booster recovery taken by many of the stalwarts of the media that cover the space industry —
Falcon ready — check
Cameras and Photographers ready - check
Ignition
Fiery Liftoff
The Flight of the Falcon
Photographers strut their stuff -
A Star Spangled Salute -
Watching Merah Putih from a Merah Tesla
Beauty in rocket trails -
Here is the full video from SpaceX —
The Booster Landing
The Return of the Booster -
Definitely needs a new paint job -
How does that thing land and stay vertical on that small barge?
Mother Nature has a Special Welcome
All’s well that ends well
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