SpaceX launched another batch of 27 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Military Base in California on Wednesday afternoon, marking the 15th anniversary of the Falcon 9 rocket's first launch.
As Spaceflight Now reports, this was the 500th orbital launch of a Falcon rocket, including Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 4E at 4:40 p.m. Pacific Time.
Just over eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage successfully landed on the unmanned vessel Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
This was the 26th flight of the first stage of the rocket booster, which has carried out 18 Starlink missions.
It was the 134th landing on the ship and the 457th landing of the launch vehicle on the coasts of California and Florida.
The first launch of the Falcon 9 rocket took place on June 4, 2010, from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. It was a test flight of the Dragon spacecraft, which successfully entered orbit.
In 2020, Falcon 9 became the first commercial rocket to carry humans into orbit.
The Falcon rocket has carried out commercial missions delivering cargo, including astronauts, to the International Space Station.
The next launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for Friday at 11:19 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral's Pad 40. The rocket will carry a SiriusXM satellite into geostationary orbit.
Private mission to the ISS
SpaceX, NASA and Axiom Space plan to launch the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, known as Axiom Mission 4, at 8:22 a.m. Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A.
The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch SpaceX's new Dragon spacecraft. The expected docking time is around 12:30 p.m. on June 11. There are currently nine people on the ISS.
Axiom Space and SpaceX plan to begin broadcasting at 6:15 a.m., while NASA will begin at 7:25 a.m. 
The commercial mission will be commanded by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space. The crew also includes pilot Shubhanshu Shukla (left) of the Indian Space Research Organisation and mission specialists Tibor Kapu of Hungary (third from left) and Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland (right) from the European Space Agency. Photo courtesy of Axiom.
Peggy Whitson, 65, will lead the commercial mission as commander.
The crew also includes pilot Shubhanshu Shukla from the Indian Space Research Organisation and mission specialists from the European Space Agency, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
This will be the first time that ISRA will send an astronaut to the space station, as well as ESA astronauts from Hungary and Poland.
NASA and the Indian space agency plan to conduct five joint scientific investigations and two orbital demonstration missions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Axiom Space, founded in 2016 and based in Houston, is building the first commercial space station, scheduled to launch in the late 2020s.
Sourse: www.upi.com
