SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket aces landing on droneship in the Atlantic; Watch viral video

SpaceX had a pretty busy week as it launched and landed three Falcon 9 rockets within a span of 36 hours. Each of the rockets lifted off from a different launch site and each launch was dedicated to a different mission. While the Falcon 9 nailed all of its launches, it also aced one of the most exciting parts of the mission- the landing. All three boosters of the two-staged rocket successfully landed on the droneships placed in the Atlantic ocean. 

Following the launch of its first mission from the tripleheader, SpaceX shared a video of the Falcon 9 booster descending to the 'A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship'. The launch was conducted from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on June 17 to deploy 53 new Starlink satellites. About nine minutes after lifting off, the booster made its way back to the floating launch pad to make a sublime landing off the coast of Florida. 

The camera fitted aboard the booster shows the Falcon 9 booster's wafer-like grid fin adjusting its orientation before it lands on the droneship. Ever since the video was shared on June 17, it has garnered over four million views on Twitter. 

SpaceX clocks in three rocket launches within 36 hours

The first mission on June 17 was SpaceX's 100th successful one with a flight-proven orbital class rocket. Moreover, the booster used in that mission flew for the 13th time after being launched in nine separate Starlink flights along with missions like GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, and Transporter-2. The second, named Sarah-1, took off at 7:49 pm IST on June 18 from the Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. According to SpaceX, the booster used for the second mission was on its third flight and has been previously used in the NROL-87 and NROL-85 missions.

The third and final mission, named GlobalStar FM15, was launched from Cape Canaveral using a booster that lifted off and launched for the ninth time. Interestingly, the same booster was used to launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) during Crew-1 and Crew-2. SpaceX revealed that this booster was also flown during SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, one Starlink mission, Transporter-4, and Transporter-5.