spacetoday.net: SpaceX launches Thaicom-8, lands first stage

Posted: Mon, May 30, 2016, 3:38 PM ET (1938 GMT)
Falcon 9 launch of Thaicom-8 (SpaceX)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the Thaicom-8 communications satellite May 27, and successfully landed the rocket's first stage on a ship for the third consecutive launch. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:39 pm EDT (2139 GMT) and placed the Thaicom-8 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit a little more than a half-hour later. The rocket's first stage made a landing on the company's autonomous landing ship in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred kilometers downrange, the third launch in a row that the stage made a landing at sea. Thaicom-8, built by Orbital ATK for Thaicom, weighed about 3,100 kilograms at launch and will provide Ku-band service from 78.5 degrees east in GEO.