'Go, Falcon!'
The applause and cheers in mission control kept getting louder from one special moment to the next during the successful SpaceX launch Monday afternoon from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
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First came the cheers at 2:35 p.m., when the Falcon 9 rocket rose from Space Launch Complex 4E, carrying the Transporter 8-mission and its 72 payloads.
Then at 2 minutes and 21 seconds into the flight, the stage separation was confirmed. Everyone cheered again, a bit louder, in mission control.
Seven minutes and 53 seconds into the flight, the Stage 1 booster landed without a hitch on Landing Zone 4, leading to even louder cheers and applause.
While the first stage returned to Earth, the second stage brought the 72 payloads into low orbit. They included CubeSats, MicroSats, a re-entry capsule and orbital transfer vehicles carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time, according to SpaceX.
You could hear excitement about the mission in the voice of Jesse Anderson, a production engineering manager who narrated the live SpaceX.com webcast from SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne. She noted SpaceX's goal of providing competitive pricing for small satellite operators.
"Our customers come from all over the world, supporting teams in 21 different countries," Ms. Anderson said.
She added that SpaceX's clients vary from defense agencies to the Vatican.
A little after midnight Pacific time (3:10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday), a Falcon 9 rocket carried 52 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
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