Today at 09:49 Moscow time, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched from the US Space Force’s Vandenberg launch site in California. The mission was carried out in the interests of the military and was classified. For the first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, this was the fourth flight and a record re-launch with an interval of only 9 days. The previous record set by SpaceX for preparing a stage for a re-launch was 14 days.
Image source: SpaceX
The first stage of the rocket returned to the pad near the cosmodrome about 7.5 minutes after liftoff. It landed successfully and will be prepared for the next launch. The booster stage completed the insertion of spacecraft into the designated orbit of the NROL-57 mission for the US National Reconnaissance Office. These are believed to be modified Starlink communications satellites designed to deploy networks for the Pentagon.
Prior to today’s launch, the rocket’s first stage flew into space on March 12, 2025, delivering two NASA observatories into orbit: PUNCH and SPHEREx.
Rapid recovery of the first stage of a launch vehicle for a second launch reduces launch costs and is one of the main goals of SpaceX. This idea will take on a completely different scale within the framework of the Starship project, which involves capturing first stages and ships using launch pad farms. In this case, preparing stages and ships for a second launch will be simplified and reduced to a matter of days or even hours. Only at this rate will Mars become available for colonization by humanity, says the head of the company, Elon Musk. But that’s another story.