Falcon 9 completes its 100th successful flight in a row [Updated]

Enlarge / Photo of the Starlink payload on top of a Falcon 9 rocket in Florida this week. (credit: SpaceX)

Update, 3:30 pm EDT: Under bright blue skies, the Falcon 9 rocket took off from Florida on Wednesday afternoon and promptly delivered its Starlink payload into orbit. This booster has truly become the workhorse of the global launch industry:

After learning to crawl, walk and run, the Falcon 9 is now sprinting. Today:

100th consecutive, successful launch of a Falcon 9

16th launch of 2021, a cadence of one rocket every nine days

6th launch during the last 33 days, once every five days pic.twitter.com/kmuBJwA82i

- Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) May 26, 2021

Original post, 1:31 pm EDT: SpaceX will attempt to launch another batch of 60 Starlink satellites today at 2:59 pm ET (18:59 UTC) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This marks the 28th overall launch of operational Starlink satellites.

The most notable aspect of today's mission is that it would be the 100th consecutive successful flight for the Falcon 9 rocket. This record dates back to June 2015, when the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage failed during the launch of a cargo supply mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule was lost after the second stage broke apart and sank into the Atlantic Ocean.

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