On June 12, SpaceX launched 72 small satellites into orbit and landed a returning rocket to Earth, marking the 200th such landing in the company’s history. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 72 spacecraft took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 17:35 ET (9:35 pm GMT; 14:35 pm California local time) and embarked on a joint mission called Transporter-8 .

The rocket’s first stage returned to Earth for a vertical landing at Vandenberg, just eight minutes after takeoff, as planned. SpaceX wrote in its mission statement that this is the ninth launch and landing for this particular launch vehicle. Even more exciting, this was SpaceX’s 200th launch vehicle landing to date during an orbital mission. That count began in December 2015, and Elon Musk’s company has made such landings nearly routine over the past 7.5 years.

Meanwhile, the rocket’s upper stage continued to lift 72 payloads, which included “cubsats, microsats, a reentry capsule, and orbital vehicles carrying the spacecraft to be deployed at a later date,” according to SpaceX’s mission statement. These satellites, deployed as planned from the Falcon 9 upper unit, were separated at 24-minute intervals, starting one hour after launch.

Transporter-8 became SpaceX’s second mission in about 14 hours. Earlier this morning, the company launched 52 of its Starlink Internet satellites into orbit from the Florida Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral.

Transporter-8 was SpaceX’s eighth small satellite mission to date and its third such flight in 2023. Transporter-6 was launched on January 3, sending 114 satellites into orbit, and Transporter-7 lifted 51 spacecraft. April 15. SpaceX’s first private travel mission holds the record for most satellites launched in a single rocket: Transporter-1 launched 143 satellites into orbit in January 2021.