There and Back Again: a Booster’s Tale
On Monday, 12 June 2023, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation—colloquially, SpaceX—landed its 200th rocket-booster. The milestone achievement occurred just eight-minutes after the 14:35 PDT launch of the company’s Transporter-8 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E at California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). Borne aloft by a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket, the mission delivered 72 payloads ranging in size from picosatellites massing less than one-kilogram to orbital platforms massing several hundred kilograms into Sun-Synchronous Orbits (SSO) of approximately 525-kilometer altitudes and 97.5-degree inclinations.
Read More
