Launch Stuff

[Yazata]

Today, December 21, 2025, is the tenth anniversary of the first successful landing of an orbital booster. B1019 accomplished that feat by returning to a landing on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral. B1019 has since become a monument outside the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne California where it was made.

Since that initial success, the reusable Falcon 9's have gone on to a very successful career, currently launching about 90% of total mass to orbit every year, with all the other American, Russian, European, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and everyone else's rockets splitting the remaining 10%.

(Nasaspaceflight.com photo)

[Image: G8vWEmcWQAAvnLa?format=jpg&name=medium]