SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches and Lands for the 22nd Time in 2022 [VIDEO]

SpaceX on Wednesday launched and landed its Falcon 9 rocket for the 22nd time in 2022, as it successfully completed its Transporter-5 mission to low Earth orbit.

The launch took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, at 2:35 p.m. ET, and the first stage booster landed back on Earth at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at the Cape, offering a rare treat for spectators on the ground; normally, we see Falcon 9 land on one of the company’s autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean.

This particular Falcon 9 booster had previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, one Starlink mission, and Transporter-4 missions. Including today’s launch, which marks the 8th launch and landing for this Falcon 9 booster.

Total successful Falcon 9 landings have now reached 115, says SpaceX.

Today’s Transporter-5 mission is SpaceX’s fifth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission it says, with today’s payload including CubeSats, microsats, non-deploying hosted payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles.

SpaceX confirmed just minutes ago the rideshare deployment sequence successfully completed.

Rideshare deployment sequence complete

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 25, 2022

Check out the full Transporter-5 mission replay below: