SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force of the month, after previously scrubbing the flight nearly a week ago.
The Starlink 15-3 mission was previously schedule to launch on Saturday, May 3, before SpaceX pushed it a day and then punted to Friday, May 9. The company didn’t state a reason for the launch delays.
The Falcon 9 rocket flew a south-easterly trajectory from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E). Liftoff was at 5:19 p.m. PDT (8:19 p.m. EDT, 0019 UTC).
SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number 1081, for this mission. It launched for a 14th time after previously flying Crew-7, CRS-29, two Transporter rideshare missions and NASA’s PACE spacecraft.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1081 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This marked the 128th booster landing on that vessel and the 441st booster landing to date.
Those on in the Southwest part of the United States will likely see far more Falcon 9 rocket launches this year compared to years past. In March, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accepted the Final Environmental Assessment (EA) from the Department of the Air Force to allow SpaceX to increase the number of launches from SLC-4E from 36 up to 50.
