SpaceX releases epic video of rocket launch and a clean landing on the ocean

SpaceX has taken to its social media channels to announce the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, which carried a new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit.

The Falcon 9 rocket launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday, with the rocket transporting 53 new Starlink satellites into lower Earth orbit. After reaching the designated altitude and releasing the Starlink satellites, the Falcon 9's first stage made a reentry and successfully landed on the SpaceX drone ship called "Of Course I Still Love You", which is located on the Pacific Ocean. There were only eight minutes between the initial launch of the Falcon 9 to its first stage, successfully touching back down on the drone ship.

SpaceX writes on its website that this was the eighth launch and landing for this particular Falcon 9 first-stage booster, which also happened to be used to launch the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, and now, six Starlink missions. So far, SpaceX has launched more than 3,500 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, enabling for more coverage of its satellite internet service, which it recently announced was now available for moving objects such as RVs. However, there is a big catch with that new service.

As for the total number of orbital launches this year, SpaceX has conducted a staggering 49 separate orbital launches, with close to 66% of those being Starlink-based missions.

In other SpaceX news, Elon Musk's company was recently fined nearly $20,000 for an accident that resulted in a SpaceX worker being put in a coma for months on end. The accident occurred while the worker was conducting checks on SpaceX's Raptor V2 engine.

Additionally, SpaceX recently released a video that showed its Launch and Catch tower called Mechazilla using its chopstick arms to life Ship 24 on top of Booster 7, creating the highly anticipated Starship launch vehicle - SpaceX's next-generation rocket that is poised to be the transportation method to the Moon and Mars. The completed stacking of the two parts pieced together by Mechazilla created the 394-foot-tall rocket that is expected to undergo its first orbital test flight hopefully before the end of the year.