It's early for all US time zones, but tomorrow morning at 0533 AM, the one booster that I've written about long enough for it to feel like a friend, B1067, will be taking its 37th flight, launching Starlink group 10-49. B1067's last flight was July 9, for a 47 day turnaround. It will also be the 100th Falcon 9 launch of the year - their 100th launch of everything for the year was three launches ago on August 19th.
The Falcon 9 is by far the busiest rocket in operation today. Last year, it flew 165 missions — more than all of the world's other orbital rockets combined. And all 165 of those flights were fully successful.
Clearly the rocket is well-designed and the crews that work on them are very well practiced. The "secret sauce" of the Falcon 9 is obviously its reusability. The rest of the world is turned on to this, as we've seen in the reports of China reporting two successes with landing two very different boosters for reuse in this month alone. Long-opposed to it, the European Space Agency is talking about reusability now.
But neither one of those newcomers has made it back to the pad for a second flight. SpaceX, meanwhile, has six Falcon 9 boosters with at least 30 flights under their belts, led by B1067's 36. (The others are B1077 and B1078 with 30, B1069 with 32, B1063 with 34 and B1071 with 35).
While SpaceX has established many records for re-use and number of flights, they've always said that some orbits that customers will want will use every ounce of thrust and every second of fuel that the booster can manage. Back in July, one mission's requirements pushed the booster beyond the point where reuse was possible. The booster was B1069 on its 32nd flight - mentioned in that Space.com article's paragraph.
The combination of the time and direction of the launch (toward the NE) may make me lean toward staying in bed and watching a replay later in the morning. Launches to the NE tend to stay behind neighbors' trees and barely even light the sky. They tend to be more likely to be visible in the winter when the trees are "thinner."
B1067 flies for the 35th time on the Starlink 9-35 mission the morning of June 8, 2026, a few minutes before sunrise. Image credit: SpaceX
I think the country should acknowledge SpaceX, and what it is accomplishing. It is a Manhattan Project, or a D-Day level achievement that is occurring, and it is going to change the future for our children in an exponential way.
ReplyDeleteI support them, and appreciate them as they continue to demonstrate what the Western White Civilization can do.
I'm gonna assume you've seen the memes that have a photo of Musk labelled something like, "my favorite African-American". I have to say I'm ignorant of possible competition, but he sure seems to be the best African-American.
DeleteThe flight, as expected, went smoothly and perfectly.