SpaceX has launched its 50th previously flown rocket [Updated]

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Turksat 5A mission. (credit: SpaceX)

9:30pm ET Thursday: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched on Thursday evening from Florida, sending a communications satellite toward geostationary transfer orbit. The rocket's first stage then returned to Earth and made a safe landing on the Just Read the Instructions droneship.

Notably, this was the 50th launch of previously flown Falcon 9 first stage. It has only been five years and a few days since they landed their first one, and less than four years since the company re-flew one. The company's next Falcon 9 launch attempt may come as soon as January 14, with the Transporter-1 smallsat rideshare mission.

Original post: SpaceX will seek to kick off what promises to be a busy year of launches on Thursday evening, when a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the Turksat 5A communications satellite. The 3.4-ton satellite will be deployed into a geostationary transfer orbit.

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