Related: SpaceX's most-flown Falcon 9 rocket is a sooty veteran after 10 launches and landings (photos) NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is pictured at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, on Dec. 9, 2020. (Image credit: Ball Aerospace) Thursday's flight also marks the second rocket launch from Cape Canaveral this week. Early Tuesday morning (Dec. 7), an Atlas V rocket blasted off from an adjacent launch pad, carrying a mix of payloads into space for the U.S. government. This veteran launcher, called B1061, has carried eight astronauts into space as part of NASA's first two long-duration missions (Crew-1 and Crew-2), a total of three different Dragon spacecraft, including a cargo mission in August, and a broadband satellite for Sirius XM. Thursday's pre-dawn flight marks the 131st overall flight of a Falcon 9 and the 28th Falcon 9 to fly in 2021. This beats SpaceX's record for the most rockets launched in a single year — the company launched 26 in 2020 — with two more launches on the schedule before the end of this year. Following a successful liftoff, the rocket's first stage landed on one of the company's three massive drone ships, which serve as floating landing pads. Named "Just Read the Instructions," the drone ship was waiting out in the Atlantic Ocean to catch the booster and haul it back to port to fly again. The IXPE satellite is the smallest dedicated payload to fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Originally slated to fly on a Pegasus rocket, the refrigerator-sized satellite switched launch vehicles, allowing NASA to shave a couple million dollars off the price tag. The mission is the 98th launch arranged by NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), since its inception in 1998, and the fifth LSP launch for SpaceX. It's also the first LSP launch to blast off from NASA's historic Pad 39A. "We are thrilled to play a very small part in this incredible science mission," Tim Dunn, director of NASA's LSP, which matches payloads with rocket launchers, told Space.com. "It's our fifth mission to ride on a Falcon 9 and the first to launch from NASA property."