ST. GEORGE, Utah, March 19, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — There was a dazzling display in the skies over the southwestern U.S. Monday night, including St. George, where untold thousands witnessed the flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket shortly after its launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Carrying a payload of 22 Starlink satellites, the two stage rocket was launched at 7:28 p.m. Pacific Time from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4 East.
While the payload streaked into orbit with new satellites aboard, the reusable stage of the Falcon 9 rocket stuck the dramatic vertical landing about 8 minutes 30 seconds after launch, when it touched down on the “Of Course I Still Love You” landing platform floating aboard a barge in the Pacific Ocean.
A St. George area resident, who asked not be identified, was on his evening walk when he snapped several pictures of the Falcon 9’s flight and vapor trail which was seen across Nevada, Arizona, Utah and California.
The Monday night launch marked SpaceX’s 26th mission of the year, 16 of which involved the deployment of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites.
It comes just three days after SpaceX released 23 other low-Earth orbit satellites as part of the global Starlink communication network.
