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SpaceX launched its latest mission of the Falcon 9 this year from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California earlier today. The launch was Falcon 9's 33rd mission in 2023, and it came after the mission was called off yesterday as the Falcon 9 aborted moments before liftoff. SpaceX has started to reuse its rockets heavily, regularly pushing them beyond ten missions per first stage. As if this weren't enough, the firm also has plans to stretch the boundaries of reusability even further with its Starlink missions. The mission launched 21 satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), with SpaceX using one rocket to launch two missions for rival firms OneWeb and Iridium. The successful launch also marked SpaceX's 232nd overall mission.

SpaceX Launches and Lands Falcon 9 Rocket For 11th Time

The Falcon 9 took off from the Vandenberg base's Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC 4E) at 6:16 am local time, roughly a day after it was initially scheduled to launch. SpaceX had already launched its fresh batch of Starlink satellites yesterday, and before the launch, three of the firm's rockets were in liftoff configuration at three different launch pads. After today's launch, SpaceX will return tomorrow as it launches another private mission to the International Space Station (ISS). This mission is for Axiom Space and will launch a crew of four to the orbiting space laboratory.

The latest mission carried five satellites for Iridium and sixteen satellites for OneWeb to build their low Earth orbit (LEO- satellite constellations. For OneWeb, fifteen satellites were operational spacecraft, and one was a demonstration satellite. Dubbed 'Joeysat,' this satellite aims to test new technologies to see the spacecraft adjust its communications beam to account for direction, signal strength and customer demand. The experimental spacecraft has been funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the U.K. Space Agency. OneWeb's LEO constellation will grow to 634 satellites once today's satellites become operational and the mission marked the firm's fourth launch with SpaceX.

The Iridium satellites are backup spacecraft designed to add redundancy to the firm's network. This network is made of satellites that have lasted more than two decades, and Iridium will have eighty satellites in orbit after today's launch. Out of these, fourteen are backup spacecraft to add network redundancy.

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The launch took place in a typical dense fog at the Vandenberg base. Soon after liftoff, it appeared as if viewers would be treated to rare external views of the Falcon 9's first and second stages separating in mid-air. However, this wasn't the case, as stage separation provided internal views from the first stage and outside the second stage. The first stage landed as soon as the second stage entered orbit, and SpaceX used a shortened nozzle on the Merlin 1D engine again today.

The mission itself was pretty long, as nearly an hour after liftoff, the second stage lit its engine again to deploy the Iridium satellites. This was a five-second burn aimed at circularizing the second stage's orbit to match the one needed to deploy the satellites. A couple of minutes later, the first Iridium satellite was deployed, and the others followed after brief intervals. Today's mission followed a polar orbit since this is the orbit followed by the Iridium satellites.

Soon after the fifth Iridium satellite was deployed, the first two OneWeb satellites also went on their way. The final OneWeb satellite deployed roughly an hour and a half after liftoff at 637 kilometers.