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Space

SpaceX Makes History: Launches and Lands Three Rockets in 36 Hours (cbsnews.com) 160

Early this morning SpaceX tweeted video showing its deployment of a communications satellite. But the deployment was part of a historic first, reports CBS News: SpaceX completed a record triple-header early Sunday, launching a Globalstar communications satellite from Cape Canaveral after putting a German radar satellite in orbit from California Saturday and launching 53 Starlink internet satellites Friday from the Kennedy Space Center. The Globalstar launch capped the fastest three-flight cadence for an orbit-class rocket in modern space history as the company chalked up its 158th, 159th and 160th Falcon 9 flights in just 36 hours and 18 minutes. More than 50 launches are expected by the end of the year.
Space.com also notes another milestone: The Friday mission set a new rocket-reuse record for SpaceX; the Falcon 9 that flew it featured a first stage that already had 12 launches under its belt. (Sunday's launch was the ninth for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, according to a SpaceX mission description.)
SpaceX also tweeted footage of that rocket's liftoff and night-time landing.
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SpaceX Makes History: Launches and Lands Three Rockets in 36 Hours

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  • The next big step will be to land some humans like that.

  • Just wait till starship gets going.

  • I look forward to the day when this is not any kind of news, because we have multiple rocket launches every single day... just like we wouldn't marvel in three flights a day now.

    • Headlines like "the most X in Y" or "the X since Y" are completely worthless, because "Y" is some arbitrary unit of time.

      • Sorry, but for some reason humans like this kind of "score keeping" in progress. It has existed for a very long time, the "Guinness Book of Records" alone has existed since 1955 with various other organizations keeping records on a variety of subjects. One can only hope that we tend to focus on such worthwhile subjects as space access, construction, technologies, etc and a little less on things like stuffing hot-dogs down ones gullet.

  • I'm pretty sure this will not end up in 8th grade US history books. It's a new first, not "history." Stop exaggerating everything.

  • Elon Musk Puts on Pants Both Legs at a Time!

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