SpaceX sets a rocket reuse record – one of the Falcon 9 launched for the seventh time
This morning, the weather favored SpaceX, and the company carried out another Starlink mission, adding a new batch of 60 communication satellites to the LEO constellation. This is good news for the project to deploy high-speed broadband access, but today’s flight is also interesting for another record.
The fact is that in this flight SpaceX used the first stage of the Falcon 9 for the seventh time, that is, the company broke its own record for the reuse of accelerators. The first stage was successfully landed on an autonomous barge in the Atlantic Ocean, that is, it could potentially set the next record if it is used in the eighth flight.
Today’s launch kicked off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 05:13 Moscow time. In-flight, a fairing was also used to protect the payload during delivery into space, which was also used earlier (and one of its halves was used twice). This also reduces costs somewhat.
SpaceX aims to reuse as many of its rocket components as possible to keep launch costs down. Every time a company uses a component from a previous mission, it saves millions. As a result, today’s mission is probably the most cost-effective for the company.
This is SpaceX’s sixteenth Starlink mission so far, and the company has now launched nearly 1,000 small satellites into orbit. Wireless internet is currently in beta testing in some areas of the US and Canada.
