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Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Against the backdrop of a cloud-broken California blue sky, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rode a million pounds of propellant and a column of fire and smoke into low-Earth orbit after blasting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 1:34 p.m. local time Thursday. The SpaceX rocket was carrying another load of 22 Starlink Internet satellites joining the network already deployed by Elon Musk's private Internet company that seeks to dominate the satellite Internet market.
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It was the 15th SpaceX launch of 2024, and followed by just hours another SpaceX mission, the Nova-C IM-1, the first lunar lander built and launched for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The Nova-C IM-1 will be the first commercial lunar landing, if successful.
The launches have become nearly routine. SpaceX carried out just shy of 100 in 2023, and is on pace to reach more than 140 this year. They happen several times a week, most often from Florida and California.
Its reusable booster rockets, which return to Earth and land on rover ships deployed in the ocean to retrieve them, while also routine, look anything but. The boosters' gravity-defying return to Earth and their eventual touchdown on the drone, amid plumes of smoke, condensation and fire, evoke images of futuristic, science-fiction movies.
They descend bottom first atop a column of flame that slows the rocket, breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic boom in the process. Not long before touch down, retractable legs are deployed and give the craft a stable purchase when it settles gently on the rover.
The SpaceX reusable booster rockets are on pace to eclipse NASA's space shuttles as the most reused space vessels ever.
On Thursday, the first-stage booster made its second flight and returned to the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You about eight and a half minutes into the flight. That recovery drone is among SpaceX's oldest and most used.
The next SpaceX launch is scheduled for Feb. 20.
