Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched 23 satellites into low Earth orbit, completing the 260th relaunch of an orbital-class rocket seven years after the first successful return of the Falcon 9.

Thus, to date, the company has successfully launched and landed the booster of the first stage of the rocket at least 260 times. The first stage is the largest and most expensive part of a rocket, and SpaceX designed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket to perform a controlled landing on landing pads or unmanned vehicles for reuse; this significantly reduced the cost of launching a payload into space. .

“The idea behind the project is that the rocket can be re-launched without any hardware changes,” Musk said in 2017, referring to the first stage of the Falcon 9. The Falcon 9 rocket was first launched in June 2010. “In other words, the only thing that changes is that you just fuel the rocket,” Musk added.

At that time, Musk stated that a single Falcon 9 rocket could be relaunched at least 100 times and added: “Actually, we can launch 1,000, but I am cautious.” A Falcon 9 booster has been recorded launching 19 times today.