June 19 (UPI) — SpaceX launched three missions in just over 36 hours, including two from Florida’s Space Coast with most recent a two-stage Falcon 9 early Sunday.
The third rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:27 a.m. carrying a communications satellite for Louisiana-based Globalstar.
Earlier, the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk launched 53 Starlink internet satellites at 12:09 p.m. Friday Eastern time from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and then sent into space a radar satellite for the German military from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:19 a.m. Saturday Pacific.
Sunday morning’s launch was Space X’s 26th this year and ninth for this particular Falcon 9 first stage.
Ten minutes after liftoff, the first stage went back to Earth, landiing vertically on the SpaceX droneship Just Read The Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.
The satellite was deployed into orbit about 1 hour and 50 minutes after launch.
Falcon 9 rocket is 229 feet tall and the Globalstar satellite weighed 1,543 pounds.
Globalstar did give details about the launch of its spare satellite before liftoff, and SpaceX also didn’t mention the payload.
In the other flight from Florida, the Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship.
It was the 100th successful mission with a flight proven orbital class rocket!