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SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites from the Vandenberg Space Force base in California earlier today. The mission took 47 Starlink satellites to orbit in a night time launch that saw the paunch pad lit up by the flame of the nine Merlin 1D engines firing up to take the payload to orbit. It marked SpaceX's 42nd launch for the year and 241st overall mission. The mission came just four days after SpaceX had launched its previous mission with an Indonesian satellite, as it marked the firm's adherence to a rapid launch cadence that has so far placed it on track to launch one hundred missions this year.

SpaceX Continues Aggressive Launch Cadence Racing Towards 100 Launches For 2023

While the mission itself was a standard SpaceX launch, today was the first time that SpaceX teamed up with Twitter to provide multiple views of the event. Ever since the firm's chief Mr. Elon Musk has taken over the social media site, Twitter has significantly upgraded its video streaming platform. The platform now allows users additional features, typically found on video streaming sites like YouTube, such as toggling video speed.

While SpaceX simultaneously streams its launches on both Twitter and YouTube, today was the first time that it used Twitter to provide multiple views of the Falcon 9 rocket. These were from a variety of cameras that SpaceX itself uses to keep track of its vehicles during launch, and they included a view from a camera placed on the first stage Falcon 9 booster, a camera placed inside the second stage, another placed on SpaceX's drone ship in the Pacific Ocean and a view from inside the first stage that typically shows the first and second stages separating.

SpaceX showers the Falcon 9 with what appears to be water after it lands. The rocket's first stage often sees some residual fuel catch fire after a landing. Image: SpaceX

The launch itself was pretty standard, with the Falcon 9 successfully lifting off from the Vandenberg Space Force's base Space Launch Complex 4E at 12:19 pm local time. Since it was a night time launch, the flames from the Merlin 1D engines on the Falcon 9 lit up the sky in an orange glow as they powered up to launch the batch of 47 satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO).

The rocket crossed the speed of sound a little over a minute after launch and roughly simultaneously crossed the point of maximum dynamic pressure. This is a crucial milestone in any launch since it marks the moment when the rocket experiences the greatest amount of force during launch.

A minute and a half later, the Falcon 9's first stage engines shut off for the first time and the first and second stages successfully separated. This was quickly followed by fairing separation, and SpaceX shared that it plans to reuse the fairings from today's launch once again after reusing them for the third time during the latest Starlink launch. The first stage Falcon 9 booster was relatively 'new' by SpaceX's standards as it had launched only three times before today's liftoff. Out of these, two were Starlink missions and one was for the Space Force.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster landed close to the nine minute mark, ensuring that SpaceX had successfully landed a Falcon lineup booster for the 202nd time. It is the only medium lift, orbital class rocket in the world that is capable of autonomously landing and reusability. SpaceX's mission came less than two hours before its competitor United Launch Alliance (ULA) was slated to launch one of America's most power rocket the Delta IV Heavy.