The Sentinel-6B spacecraft lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Monday at 12:21 a.m. EDT (0521 GMT; 9:21 p.m. on Nov. 16 local California time).
"Sentinel-6B rising, extending nearly four decades of the precise sea-level record from space," NASA spokesman Derrol Nail said during the agency's launch webcast.
SpaceX highlighted the reuse milestone in a post on X, as did company president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell.
"Congratulations to the SpaceX team on completing 500 (!!!!) missions with flight-proven rocket boosters. You’ve made the impossible possible with reusable rockets, paving the way to land huge amounts of cargo and lots of people to establish permanent human presence on the moon and beyond with Starship!" Shotwell wrote.
The fully reusable Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. SpaceX is developing it to help get humanity to the moon and Mars, among other feats. Starship has launched 11 times to date, but those don't contribute to the 500 count; all of Starship's liftoffs so far have been suborbital test flights.
Source: www.space.com
No comments:
Post a Comment