SpaceX lands booster off coast of Bahamas for first time

Feb. 18 (UPI) -- SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a rocket booster on its drone ship off the coast of an island in The Bahamas on Tuesday, in what was the "first international landing of a first stage booster" for the company.

The SpaceX Starlink flight launched at 6:21 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to place a new round of 23 Starlink satellites into lower Earth orbit.

"Liftoff!" SpaceX announced in a post on X with a video of Tuesday's launch.

A little more than eight minutes after launch, the first stage of the SpaceX booster returned to Earth and landed on the drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" to loud applause inside mission control. This time, instead of in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the drone ship was parked off the coast of The Bahamas island of Exuma.

"Falcon 9 lands off the coast of The Bahamas for the first time! Welcome to space," SpaceX wrote in a post on X, right after the first stage booster touched down Tuesday evening.

"We're excited to continue working with the Bahamian government on this mutually beneficial partnership and we look forward to many more drone ship landings off the coast of the Bahamas for Falcon," said Zachary Luppen, avionics supply chain engineer for SpaceX.

SpaceX warned earlier Tuesday that there was "the possibility that residents of and visitors to The Bahamas may hear one or more sonic booms during the landing."

Tuesday's launch marks the 16th flight for the first-stage booster. The booster has been part of nine previous Starlink flights.

SpaceX's ability to reuse the first-stage boosters has allowed the company to return to space much faster and at less cost than past NASA flights using non-reusable first-stage boosters.