SpaceX successfully launches, lands Falcon 9 rocket

Sunday marks second launch of doubleheader weekend

A Falcon 9 rocket with a Bulgarian satellite on launchpad 39A awaiting launch. The launch is the second "flight-proven" rocket to be used for a SpaceX mission.

LOS ANGELES – SpaceX on Sunday completed a weekend launch double-header, blasting a batch of 10 commercial satellites into orbit from California two days after a mission from Florida.

News 6 partner Florida Today said Sunday’s launch for Iridium Communications was SpaceX’s ninth successful mission of 2017 — the company’s most in a calendar year, with six months to go.

The back-to-back missions saw the first stages of both rockets drop from space to landings on robotic barges stationed at sea, ensuring the boosters may be available to fly again.

The landings, still a novelty just a year ago, increasingly seem routine: SpaceX hasn’t lost a rocket it has attempted to recover in the last 18 months.

Launching the same type of rocket twice within two days is a rare feat, at least among U.S. rockets.

It may not have happened since a pair of Titan III rockets in 1974, according to research by local launch historian John Hilliard, though it was more common in the ‘60s. Nearly 20 years ago, Delta II rockets launched three days apart.

In March 2015, Russian Soyuz rockets boosted two missions to orbit on the same day from different sites, one of them a crew of International Space Station astronauts.

Nonetheless, it was an impressive accomplishment for SpaceX, which since introducing the Falcon 9 in 2010 has struggled to launch consistently after failures cut short campaigns in 2015 and 2016.

SpaceX is preparing for another satellite launch soon from the Space Coast. It’s not yet clear if that will be possible by the July 4 holiday, after which the Air Force has scheduled a two-week maintenance period for the Eastern Range.

Last Friday at 3:10 p.m., a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off with Bulgaria’s first communications satellite, which was bound for an orbit high over the equator.

The mission used the first stage of a Falcon 9 that in January launched 10 Iridium NEXT satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

At 4:25 p.m. EDT Sunday, another Falcon 9 put 10 more Iridium NEXT satellites into low Earth orbit, blasting off through dense fog at Vandenberg.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the modified barge that SpaceX calls a “drone ship” had to be repositioned to avoid “extreme weather” in the Pacific Ocean.

Cameras on the Falcon 9’s first stage showed it appear to descend smoothly to its touchdown, aided by stabilizing “grid fins” featuring a new, more heat-resistant titanium design that Musk said worked “even better than expected.”

 “Should be capable of an indefinite number of flights with no service,” he said.

Fifty-seven minutes into the flight, the first of the 1,900-pound NEXT spacecraft deployed. Another followed every 100 seconds until the mission was complete.

SpaceX is under contract with Iridium for six more launches over the next year or so.

"Right now, it's two down with six more launches to go," said Iridium CEO Matt Desch. "Our operations team is eagerly awaiting this new batch of satellites and is ready to begin the testing and validation process."

Iridium plans to use new Falcon 9s for its remaining launches, but Desch said he was open to using a previously flown booster later in the campaign, after SpaceX had more experience with them.

“I think it’s revolutionizing the industry,” he said. “I believe the risk is pretty low right now, but it’s not zero, because it’s a new thing.”

Thinking about watching a launch from the Space Coast? Check out the interactive map below for the best spots. Mobile users click here to view the interactive map.