SpaceX lands rocket's first stage on ship

Today's successful launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California has resulted in four new records for SpaceX-a sure sign that the Elon Musk-led company, and the commercial space industry in general, is rapidly maturing.

SpaceX launched a rocket carrying a payload of 64 satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 3, 2018.

The core of Spaceflight's services business is what the company calls "rideshare" missions: Piggy-backing small satellites on the back of missions where a larger satellite is headed in the same direction.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches, carrying a Qatari communications satellite, which will provide connectivity to Qatar and neighbouring parts of the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, from historic Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., November 15, 2018.

This mission also marks a first for SpaceX: It's the first time the company has sent the same first-stage booster into space three times. The booster, covered in black soot from its two prior flights, landed again on a remote controlled platform in the Pacific Ocean after launch, queuing up the rocket to fly for a fourth time.

SpaceX now dominates the global market of orbital rocket launches. As noted, this mission represents the largest single rideshare launched from the United States to date.

According to Myriota, the drifters monitor location, currents, sea surface water temperatures, and barometric pressure, and, in future, AIMS will be able to get oceanographic data every hour.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has made reusability a major goal. SpaceX wants to make it cheaper, and the key to doing that is its reusable rockets and satellite ride-sharing missions like the SpaceX SSO-A SmallSat Express mission. "Nothing wrong with a little swim", Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, said on Twitter. The payloads, which vary from technology demonstrations and imaging satellites to educational research endeavours, are from 17 countries, including the US, Australia and Italy. Spaceflight is expected to share updates about the remaining payloads.

The ISRO successfully launched another rocket on Thursday, deploying 31 satellites into space orbit. Six months later a Russian Soyuz rocket launched 73 satellites, though a few of them were unresponsive after launch.

The rocket in Monday's launch was previously used for satellite launches in May and August of this year.

British manufacturer SSTL also built KazSTSAT, an Earth observation satellite, with JV Ghalam LLP that has multiple experimental features.