As the world’s media went into overdrive on Thursday night over news that Elon Musk had finally got his hands on Twitter, the man at the center of the frenzy was apparently looking the other way, enjoying the latest launch of one of his SpaceX rockets heading to orbit on another Starlink mission.
While many of SpaceX’s Starlink missions launch from the Kennedy Space Center on the East Coast, Thursday evening’s started from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, on the other side of the country in California. Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship pic.twitter.com/bIFlERy14S The first-stage booster supporting the mission previously launched the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, the DART asteroid mission, and five other Starlink missions. The reusability of the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster is a key part of SpaceX’s vision for spaceflight as the process paves the way for lower mission costs and greater launch frequency.