SpaceX plans to launch Transporter-3, its third dedicated small satellite ride share mission, from Cape Canaveral on Thursday, 2022-01-13 at 15:35 UTC. The first stage booster will land back at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral instead of a drone ship downrange. Here is the pre-launch preview from Everyday Astronaut.
Wow! This is the 136th Falcon 9 launch.
Just checked. More than 3,000 V2 rockets were launched by Germany in WWII – but they were single use, did not go to orbit, and certainly did not have any successful soft landings.
It has been a long time coming, but mass production rocketry is now beginning to develop. No wonder Musk focuses so much on production issues.
Here is the official SpaceX Webcast. The live stream usually starts around 15 minutes before the scheduled launch time, which is 15:25 UTC.
To quote Norm Crosby, “Bull’s ear, Catnip!”
Although it looks like a landing leg or two bent.
The landing leg struts contain single-use crushable honeycomb as a landing shock absorber. This is replaced after each landing. Compression of the honeycomb may account for the apparent deflection of the landing legs.
Incredible booster-eye view on a clear day of the rocket lining up for landing while 100 km (almost 330,000 feet) up. Wow!