SpaceX's launch this year ended: Falcon 9 delivered delivery to NASA 31 times

SpaceX completed the year's finale, with the Falcon 9 rocket launching 31 times, breaking the record of 26 launches set in 2020.

At 5:07 a.m. Eastern Time on December 21, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flew its 24th commercial replenishment mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, using a "second-hand" Dragon spacecraft to deliver 6,500 pounds (about 2,948 kilograms) of cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The spacecraft is scheduled to automatically dock with the space station at around 4:38 a.m. EST on Dec. 22 and stay for about a month before returning to Earth with research and cargo and splashing off the coast of Florida.

Since falcon 9 launched Turkey's Turksat 5A communication satellite on January 7, EST, this launch is the 31st launch of spaceX Falcon 9 rocket this year, and it is also the end of this year, and SpaceX completed 26 launches last year.

It is worth noting that this launch is also SpaceX's third launch in 72 hours. Previously, 52 "Starlink" satellites were launched on the evening of December 18, Beijing time, and for the first time, an arrow 11 flew 11 recovery, and 15 hours later, on the morning of December 19, Beijing time, the Turkish Turksat 5B communication satellite was launched.

The mission used a first-hand rocket. After the separation of the first and second stages, the first stage rocket landed on the unmanned barge "Please see the manual" in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the successful completion of SpaceX's 100th orbital stage booster recovery. About 12 minutes after launch, the Dragon spacecraft separated from the second stage of Falcon 9 and began a series of thruster ignitions to reach the space station.

Among the cargoes of the mission are protein crystal growth studies that could improve the way cancer treatment drugs reach patients, and handheld bioprinters that could future print tissue directly onto wounds, speeding up wound healing.

At the same time, scientists have observed that spaceflight sometimes increases the toxicity of potentially harmful microbes and may reduce human immune function, thereby increasing the risk of contracting disease. Therefore, the infection risk assessment experiment launched this time will collect the cells of astronauts before, during and after space flight, and culture these cells with bacteria and unchanged bacteria that grow under simulated space conditions to assess the changes in immune status caused by space. The findings help assess the potential risks that may be posed by infected microorganisms and support the development of countermeasures.