SpaceX launches 3 rockets from 3 pads in less than 37 hours (photos)
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SpaceX continues to keep up its torrid launch pace.
Elon Musk's company sent three of its Falcon 9 rockets to orbit from three different pads over the course of a day and a half.
The action began on Sunday (April 20), when a Falcon 9 launched the NROL-145 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. It was the 10th flight in service of the NRO's new "proliferated architecture" of spy satellites.
Next up was SpaceX's 32nd cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA, which launched from the agency's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida early Monday morning (April 21).
Then, on Monday night, another Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC.
That launch kicked off Bandwagon-3, a rideshare mission that lofted a spy craft for the South Korean government, a private European reentry capsule and a satellite for the weather-forecasting outfit Tomorrow Companies Inc.
SpaceX highlighted the spaceflight tripleheader in a Tuesday (April 22) post on X, the social media site that Musk owns, noting that the three launches occurred in a span of about 36 hours.
Related: SpaceX: Facts about Elon Musk's private spaceflight company
Related stories:
— SpaceX aces 3rd launch in 13 hours, sending 23 Starlink satellites to orbit (video)
— SpaceX launches 30 satellites on Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission (video)
— 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight
Impressive as that number is, it's far from a record; last month, SpaceX launched three Falcon 9 missions during a 13-hour stretch.
SpaceX has now launched 46 Falcon 9 flights in 2025. It has also conducted two test missions of its Starship megarocket, which the company is developing to help humanity settle the moon and Mars, as well as assist with other tasks.
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