Jan. 28 (UPI) — Amid a thick column of fire, bright white vapor, and riding a million pounds of kerosene propellant, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off against the backdrop of a dark Florida sky at 8:10 p.m. EST Sunday night, carrying 23 Starlink satellites that will be deployed into low Earth orbit.
The mission was in question just 40 seconds prior to the scheduled liftoff due to a high wind advisory at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It was the 74th launch of a Falcon rocket from this pad (including nine Falcon Heavy rockets) and the 167th launch overall, according to SpaceX.
After a 13 second fiery entry back into Earth’s atmosphere, the reusable booster, named 1062B, landed on ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ a drone ship deployed to recover the booster so it can be used again. It was the 18th mission for 1062B, just 8:29 after the Falcon 9 lifted off. It was the 18th time 1062B has been used.
This was the 58th booster landing on this vessel and the 267th overall landing of a Falcon 9 first stage booster.
It was Spacex’s 293rd launch overall, which is on track to set a record. SpaceX aims to eclipse the number of launches of NASA’s space shuttles by the end of 2024.
This is the latest in a long series of SpaceX launches already this year and the first of two scheduled launches on Sunday night. January. SpaceX is scheduled to launch its 7-12 mission from Vandenberg Air Force in California at 10:45 p.m. EST, but SpaceX said weather could push that launch back a few hours or cause it to be scrubbed until another window is available.
