{"id":11601,"date":"2021-06-21T23:17:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T15:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-spacex-rocket-launches-then-lands-on-space-force-mission\/"},"modified":"2021-06-21T23:17:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T15:17:28","slug":"photos-spacex-rocket-launches-then-lands-on-space-force-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-spacex-rocket-launches-then-lands-on-space-force-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: SpaceX rocket launches, then lands, on Space Force mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

These photos show the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket June 17 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying a GPS navigation satellite into orbit for the U.S. Space Force. Once its job was complete, the rocket\u2019s first stage booster returned to a landing on a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

The rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral at 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT) with the Space Force\u2019s GPS 3 SV05 navigation satellite. Nine Merlin engines generated 1.7 million pounds of ground-shaking thrust to power the Falcon 9 off the launch pad.<\/p>\n

Two-and-a-half minutes later, the first stage shut down its engines and separated from the Falcon 9\u2019s second stage, which continued into orbit with the GPS payload.<\/p>\n

The 15-story booster stage extended grid fins and used cold gas thrusters to orient itself for the plunge back into the atmosphere, culminating in a landing burn with a single Merlin engine to brake for touchdown. During the braking burn, the rocket unfolded four carbon-aluminum composite landing legs to settle onto the deck of the drone ship \u201cJust Read the Instructions\u201d positioned about 400 miles (650 kilometers) northeast of Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

These images show the Falcon 9 firing into the sky during launch, then show the booster\u2019s final descent back to the drone ship. The drone ship images were captured with remote cameras.<\/p>\n

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Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These photos show the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket June 17 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying a GPS navigation satellite into orbit for the U.S. Space Force. Once its job was complete, the rocket\u2019s first stage booster returned to a landing on a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}