There's an OBTW (Oh, By The Way...) footnote to what most reporters consider the real story; which is that Saturday morning's Starlink 12-8 mission flew successfully from SLC-40 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That footnote is that the flight established a new record for flights of an orbital class booster. Booster B1067 now earns -26 in its name for its 26th successful mission and continues as the fleet leader.
We've joked here and in the comments about remembering when it was a goal to get 10 flights out of a booster. Then they increased the number to 20. Currently they're saying 30 is the goal with some talk about going to 35 or 40.
A while ago, I stumbled across a site called ElonX that digs deeply into things that aren't necessarily widely reported and one of them is a remarkable graphic that keeps track of every Falcon 9, Block 5, in the fleet. I'd reproduce it here, but it's just too big at 11,000 x 4660 pixels, so I'll link to the full-size image here.
Instead, what I did was edit the data to display less data. I clipped off every booster with less than 15
flights, and the first 14 flights of everything shown here. There are 201 missions depicted here on 10 boosters; the full sheet that this was clipped from has an additional eight boosters.
Originally created by @SpaceNosey, then maintained by @pedro_leon and currently maintained by @PavelVantuch.
The infographic is usually updated after each launch. Last update: February 16, 2025 (after Starlink 12-8)
The 10 boosters' numbers are on the left and every mission from 15 to their most recent missions stretch out to the right. B1063 and B1071 have 23 flights, B1069 has 21 and so on.
I thought the information on this site was worth linking to and my edit worth sharing. Hope you like!
That's just... crazy. Truly a fundamental change of the process, and one which should have had every other manufacturer scrambling to copy some or all aspects or actually innovate past what SpaceX has done.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for tracking Boosters and Starships for multiple launches and recoveries.
We are living in amazing times.
ReplyDeleteHow many of the boosters have stainless steel skin?
ReplyDeleteHow many of the flights shown were without stainless steel skin?
I think metallurgists the world over would be supremely interested in the durability of a material subjected to the various forces and thermal swings. At this point, Space X is the world's largest materials lab.
SpaceX publishes a Falcon User's Guide for both the Falcon 9 and Heavy. Maybe I'm having a dense moment, but they don't seem to specifically say what we see of the vehicle is made of, but there a several references to the use of aluminum-lithium alloy for the tanks, which are the largest part of the vehicle. There is no mention of stainless steel at all.
DeleteThe original concept for Starship was to be a composite and they started down that road for a while, then decided on SS and had to tear up everything and start over.
Its so remarkable the engines are as durable as the booster sections. Never mind how quickly and with so few issues they built fly and maintain the various Dragon capsules. I think you have to take it all in one package to truly get a measure of SpaceX's engineering and technical prowess. No other outfit approaches them in overall success. Then, they are only just now getting started, what with Superheavy test program, the whole stage zero system once its lined out, insane advent of re-defining space access. Its truly paradigm level advancement. And we do not know yet cause its all in test flight stage, what a regular Superheavy flight schedule will bring to the table. I mean the tonnage to lift, what effects will it create? Sky's the limit literally? Then with the Russians new ion engine technology, thats only sensible what with their rocket engine expertise and resources, SpaceX probably is developing their own ion type propulsion, or who knows maybe something new?
ReplyDelete