Today, SpaceX set a new Falcon 9 booster reuse record with 24 launches. The rocket launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday at 05:13 local time (13:13 Moscow time). Perhaps this is not the last flight for this accelerator.
Image source: SpaceX
The rocket’s intended mission was to deliver 24 satellites into low Earth orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network. Nine minutes after launch, the first stage successfully landed on the deck of an autonomous barge in the Atlantic Ocean, marking another milestone in SpaceX’s achievements.
Prior to today’s flight, three different Falcon 9 first stages had completed 23 flights each, and now one of them has taken the lead in repeat flights. To date, the Falcon 9 launch vehicle has completed more than 400 successful flights, 377 of which were accompanied by the return of the first stages. This allowed SpaceX to claim that its rocket delivered cargo into space 100 times cheaper than the reusable Shuttles did.
SpaceX plans to deploy a satellite Internet constellation of tens of thousands of devices. This means not only putting all this equipment into orbit, but also constantly replenishing hundreds of satellites that fail every year. So we are waiting for new records for the number of re-launches of the first stages of Falcon 9 rockets, until this baton is passed on to the reusable Starship ship with a much larger payload. But that will be a different story.