This stunning drone footage shows SpaceX launching a spy satellite and landing a rocket.
On February 3, SpaceX’s NROL-87 mission was launched and landed by a drone.
SpaceX has released a spectacular new film that captures the experience of seeing a rocket take off and then return to Earth.
The launch of the secret NROL-87 satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office of the United States is recorded on film by a SpaceX drone in flight.
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted out from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday (February 2).
“Drone shot of today’s Falcon 9 launch and landing,” SpaceX wrote on Twitter Wednesday after the launch.
Cameras on the Falcon 9 first stage captured its entire descent from space to landing.
The camera angle in this video is incredible.
Nearby, the drone camera captures the launch of a brand new 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket powered by nine first-stage Merlin engines.
The sun can be seen just off-screen in a peaceful blue sky as the rocket rises into the distance.
After the launch, the film cuts to the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage landing, roughly 8 minutes later.
Spectacular Landing from Far-Away Skies
The rocket touches down in SpaceX’s Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg with two loud booms, now coated in soot from its launch and reentry burn.
The Pacific Ocean’s beautiful seas provide a touch of nature to the technical accomplishment.
It’s SpaceX’s goal to reduce the cost of space travel by developing rockets like the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy that can be reused. NROL-87’s launch on Wednesday was SpaceX’s second of three Falcon 9 missions this week.
An Earth-observation satellite for Italy’s Space Agency and Italian Ministry of Defense was launched by SpaceX on Monday, January 31, and the streak started.
After the NROL-87 launch on Wednesday and SpaceX’s launch of 49 additional Starlink broadband satellites on Thursday, there came the NROL-87 launch (February 3).
Because of this, the CSG-2 and Starlink flights took out from separate SpaceX launch sites in Florida than the NROL-87 flight.
The CSG-2 satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. In contrast, the Starlink mission was lofted from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A, which is utilized for manned launches.
