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| SpaceX successfully completed Mission 125 |
Elon Musk's SpaceX company launched the Sirius XM satellite early June 6, marking the successful completion of 125 corporate missions.
This launch used a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Site 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Unlike older NASA rockets, the Falcon 9 booster is designed to be reusable.
Launched at 12:26 PM ET on Saturday, June 5 (9:26 AM PT), just after midnight.
The mission put the satellite, called SXM-8, into orbit about 30 minutes after launch. The SXM-8 satellite will be part of the SiriusXM satellite radio operations network.
This satellite is similar to the SXM-7 satellite that SpaceX successfully launched into orbit last year. But then it crashed into orbit.
The 70-meter Falcon 9 rocket successfully put the SXM-8 broadcast satellite into orbit. It is one of two satellites launched by SpaceX to replace older satellites currently in orbit.
SpaceX has completed a new mission:
The booster used by the Falcon 9 rocket for this launch went into the atmosphere for the third time. This is after it was previously used for two missions: Crew Mission 1 and Crew Mission 2.
This is the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon, which transports astronauts from Earth to the International Space Station. This enabled the astronauts to return to the United States for the first time since the shuttle program ended in 2011.
SpaceX recently hit a record 10 missions with a booster, marking a significant milestone in pursuing the company's reuse goal.
The company collected the boosters and reused them in several missions. During this launch, SpaceX did the same.
She also shared a video of the first stage of the booster landing on the Just Read the Instructions drone parked in the Atlantic Ocean via her official Twitter account.
Once the booster hits the ground, the lens will vibrate, which is typical when you see many SpaceX boosters landing.
The reason is that the live broadcast was interrupted when the booster landed with the signal that was used to send and receive the video.
The drone's camera transmits video data to the satellite and the satellite sends it to a SpaceX broadcast.
But if the booster is close enough to the landing, it will shake the ship violently, causing the satellite signal to be interrupted or lost, which may cause the video to break.