SpaceX has achieved yet another feat in the space travel and logistics space by successfully pulling off a total of three missions aboard its Falcon 9 rockets in less than 48 hours.
Company CEO Elon Musk on late Saturday evening congratulated SpaceX staff on hitting the milestone.
Congrats to SpaceX Falcon team for executing 3 flawless launches in 2 days! https://t.co/2MFmlkXmVz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2022
The series of three missions started with a Falcon 9 launch of 53 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on Friday morning. This mission also set a new reusability record for SpaceX, marking the rocketry venture’s first 13th launch and landing of a Falcon 9.
SpaceX originally planned to take Falcon 9s out of the rotation for major maintenance after they flew 10 missions. However, the company has since validated its revolutionary rocket for up to 15 launches. The Falcon 9 that supported the most recent Starlink mission was the company’s first to push 13.
On Saturday morning, SpaceX launched the SARah-1 satellite into space for its second launch. Later that same day, another Falcon 9 delivered Globalstar FM15 into orbit in what was SpaceX’s third launch in a span of under 48 hours.
“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,” points out CBS News.
SpaceX is constantly and consistently working towards minimizing wait time between launches to ultimately develop an airline-like frequency of off-world flights.
Earlier this week, SpaceX also (finally) received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct the first orbital test flight of its Starship spacecraft.
