SpaceX has successfully brought NASA’s new exoplanet-hunting telescope to high Earth orbit, from which, after one more burn, the satellite will be deployed. From there, it will get a gravity assist from the moon and enter a wide orbit, beginning its mission. Meanwhile, back on the surface, the Falcon 9’s first stage landed successfully on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.
This is the 8th launch this year, and the 24th time SpaceX has landed a Falcon 9 first stage — that is, the part of the rocket that accelerates it out of the atmosphere. Although the plan is eventually to catch the falling fairing in a “giant catcher’s mitt,” as Elon Musk once described it, the boat-borne mitt is currently in the Pacific Ocean and this launch was over the Atlantic.
The rocket shortly after landing on Of Course I Still Love You. The ship’s feed cut out when the rocket landed.
This rocket, after being inspected and refurbished, of course, is planned to be reused for the next ISS resupply mission SpaceX is performing, in June. Soon this generation of Falcon 9s will be exhausted, though: starting soon, SpaceX will be launching its 5th generation of Falcon 9’s (“Block 5”), which have a variety of improvements to improve their reusability past the two or three times previous ones could be used.
The launch went nominally, but there’s a second burn planned to get TESS into the proper trajectory that will happen in about 35 minutes; I’ll update the post once that takes place.