SpaceX uses rocket booster for record 9th time in Starlink launch

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

This morning, Sunday, March 14, SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket and successfully caught the rocket’s first stage for reuse. Being the booster’s ninth flight, this marks a new record for the number of times the company has used a booster.

The booster in question was previously used on no less than five Starlink missions, plus the Radarsat Constellation Mission and the Sirius XM satellite mission. Perhaps its most famous mission was the uncrewed demonstration test flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, launched in March 2019. The Crew Dragon capsule has since been tested on crewed missions and is now being used to ferry astronauts between the Earth and the International Space Station.

Recommended Videos

With a total of nine flights — the eight previous missions plus today’s launch — this booster is now the most-reused booster ever by SpaceX. It is also approaching the goal of 10 flights per booster which has been SpaceX’s target for rocket reusability for years. If everything continues to work as planned, this booster may even surpass that goal and continue to be used for future missions.

SpaceX also shared some gorgeous images of the Falcon 9 during launch this morning, including a striking photo of the arc of the rocket reflected in the water below:

Falcon 9 launches Starlink to orbit pic.twitter.com/BXtM7I3t5M

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2021

The catching of the first stage boosters from Falcon 9 rockets on droneships typically located in the Atlantic Ocean has become also a matter of course for SpaceX. Though the company had trouble catching boosters successfully in the early years of Falcon 9 use, it has become better and better at catching them to the point that when it lost a boost last month that was a rarity.

The public’s interest has been captured by SpaceX and the Falcon 9 in part thanks to the livestreams of its launches that the company shows online. Fans can follow along with almost all SpaceX launches and enjoy cool videos of the first stages landing on droneships or, in some cases, on solid ground.

Georgina Torbet

Former Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Topics

Space

SpaceX Starship reaches orbit for the first time but its historic flight ends early

Starship reaches orbit for the first time and deploys 26 Starlink satellites before an early splashdown.

spacex-starship

After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180

Space

Starship is finally going orbital, and SpaceX has picked September 22

Flight 14 is aiming for orbit, Starlink V3 deployment and a very long day in space.

Starship rocket.

SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.

Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver

Space

Want a city on the Moon? Scientists say there’s not enough water

A billion tons still comes up short

Artist impression of activities in a Moon Base.

For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.

A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.