Elon Musk celebrates the 200th flight of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket trends now
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SpaceX launched its hugely successful Falcon 9 rocket to space for the 200th time today, as it deployed 53 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit.
The major milestone comes just weeks before Elon Musk's eagerly-anticipated Mars spacecraft, Starship, is due to make its first orbital flight.
Falcon 9 is the safest and most experienced active American rocket and the only one currently certified for transporting humans to the International Space Station.
The vehicle made it a double century of lift-offs when it blasted into space earlier this morning (Thursday), having launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 07:58 GMT (02:58).
Powered by a first stage booster, the rocket was topped with 53 Starlink satellites, taking the total now in orbit to more than 3,800.
Milestone: SpaceX launched its hugely successful Falcon 9 rocket to space for the 200th time today, as it deployed 53 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit
This first stage then returned to Earth, touching down on SpaceX's drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas about 8 minutes and 45 seconds after lift-off.
It was the fourth launch of Starlink satellites so far this year.
SpaceX has permission to put a constellation of 12,000 in orbit but has applied for approval to add another 30,000 on top of that.
The satellites provide low-latency, high-speed internet at an affordable cost – often to remote areas without existing WiFi – and last year expanded to yachts, cruise ships and RVs.
In tests, the service has been shown to offer speeds of up to 200 megabits per second, which is higher than what copper cables that are
