SpaceX launches 400th Falcon 9 flight and 100th from Vandenberg Space Force Base

On November 23, 2024, SpaceX launched the 400th Falcon 9 space flight to orbit carrying 20 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This is a massive milestone for the rocket as it continues to launch new missions more than twice or thrice a week. It is way more than any other rocket company around the globe.

Falcon 9 is a two-stage reusable rocket to transport payload to orbit and beyond. It is 70 meters tall, 3.7 meters wide, and has a 549,054 kg mass. It can take up to 22,800 kg payload to low Earth orbit,g 8,300 kg payload to geostationary orbit, and 4,020 kg payload to Mars.

Its first stage is fully reusable and equips nine Merline engines and aluminum-lithium alloy tanks to fill in liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propellant. With all of its Merline power, it can generate more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

It has landing legs made of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb. These deploy during the final seconds of the first stage’s landing and stand the rocket on a droneship or a landing site.

Falcon 9’s first stage has four in total and is positioned at the base of the interstage and used to orient the flight during the reentry phase by moving the center of pressure.

On the other hand, the second stage leads the mission into orbit with a payload. It has a single Merlin Vacuum engine, which ignites a few seconds after stage separation. However, it can be restarted several times before payload deployment.

Mission detail

SpaceX launched the 400th Falcon 9 flight at 9:25 p.m. PT, the first launch window for this liftoff without any delay.

This was the 15th flight for the first stage booster, which previously supported SDA-0A, Transporter-11, SARah-2, and 12 Starlink missions including the latest. Following the final burn, the stage landed on a droneship.