SpaceX Iridium NEXT-2 Launch and Landing June 25, 2017 / Vandenberg AFB, CA.

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With Sunday’s spectacular launch-and-landing of an Upgraded Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., almost a quarter of all of SpaceX’s missions have now flown in 2017 alone. Nine launches in the first six months of the calendar year establishes a new “personal best” for the Hawthorne, Calif.-headquartered organization, which previously achieved eight flights in 2016 and six fully successful missions in 2015 and 2014 apiece. SpaceX has long insisted that it aims to launch its Upgraded Falcon 9s at intervals of around two weeks—a boast which, by and large, it has accomplished in 2017—but this weekend also offered a unique “double-header” for CEO Elon Musk, coming a mere 48 hours after Friday’s successful BulgariaSat-1 launch. It also secured another record for SpaceX, which has now launched three missions in the span of a single calendar month.