On Thursday, December 9 at 1:00 a.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) to low Earth orbit from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was the fifth flight for NASA’s Launch Service Program.

This was the fifth flight for this Falcon 9’s first stage booster, which previously supported launch of Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, and CRS-23. This mission marked SpaceX’s 130th flight of Falcon 9 and its 90th successful landing.