CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — At 5:30 p.m. Monday evening, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a communications satellite for the South Korean military.
The launch of the ANASIS-II or KMilSatCom 1 was historic for both the commercial aerospace company and American spaceflight in general.
The launch broke two records, including a SpaceX one. According to Spaceflight Now, Monday's launch broke the record for the quickest turnaround time for missions with the same first-stage booster. The record was 62 days between flights achieved on Feb. 17.
The launch of this first-stage booster, B1058-2, also marked the quicked turnaround time for an orbital class rocket, according to Tesla and SpaceX blog Teslarati.
The record was originally set by Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1985 when the spacecraft launched on Nov. 26, just 54 days after its inaugural launch from Pad 29A at Kennedy Space Center.
Atlantis was also part of STS-135 on July 8, 2011, the last Space Shuttle mission and the last time NASA astronauts launched from American soil before astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew aboard Endeavour to the International Space Station back in May.
That historic launch of NASA astronauts also used the B1058-2 first-stage booster.
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