The booster simply touched down on the droneship. “The Falcon 9 first-stage has now efficiently launched and landed for a record-breaking sixteenth time,” introduced SpaceX’s feed on YouTube. It was additionally SpaceX’s 206th touchdown of an orbital-class rocket.
Lengthy-time Slashdot reader Amiga Trombone quotes Spaceflight Now on how SpaceX examined “the boundaries of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday night.”
The booster, tail quantity 1058, made its historic debut on Could 20, 2020, carrying the primary astronauts to trip atop a Falcon 9 aboard the Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour. The primary stage is distinctive within the SpaceX fleet as it’s the just one to show a pink NASA “worm” emblem on its fuselage. It went on to fly 14 extra occasions, together with the launches of South Korea’s Anasis 2 army communications satellite tv for pc, an area station cargo supply run, two Transporter ride-share missions and ten batches of Starlink satellites. With 15 flights already completed, it’s the joint fleet chief with booster 1060.
Initially, the corporate hoped to reuse every Falcon 9 first stage 10 occasions.
“We received to 10 [flights] and the autos have been nonetheless trying actually good, so we began the hassle to qualify for 15,” Jon Edwards, SpaceX vice chairman of Falcon launch autos and Falcon engineering, instructed the commerce publication Aviation Week & House Know-how in an interview final yr.
SpaceX is now additional pushing the envelope by going past the beforehand licensed restrict of 15 flights. It has been over 200 days since booster 1058 final flew. Throughout that point it’s possible SpaceX performed intensive inspections and refurbishment work to clear the rocket for extra launches.
For its sixteenth trip to house, booster 1058 will carry 22 second-generation Starlink ‘V2 mini’ satellites into orbit, on a mission designated Starlink 6-5.
