A routine Starlink launch turned into something otherworldly this weekend

Enlarge / SpaceX launches its 25th mission on Saturday, lifting above the fog. (credit: SpaceX)

By most measures, the Saturday morning launch of a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket seemed fairly pedestrian. After all, SpaceX had already launched 24 rockets this year, so adding one more Starlink satellite mission on top was no big deal. This has all become pretty routine.

Moreover, the company had already worked through a hectic week, safely landing the Crew-2 mission for NASA in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday night and turning around and launching the Crew-3 mission less than 48 hours later on Wednesday.

To top it off, the company oversaw a successful docking of the Crew-3 mission and its four astronauts with the International Space Station on Thursday evening.

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