Tuesday will be a sad day. (The reason won't be all the democrats crying about the election. That will be cause for celebration.)
It's because SpaceX's loyal stalwart, 13 time veteran booster B1051 will be expended on its 14th and final flight launching two satellites called Galaxy 31 and 32 to a high geostationary orbit.
Whether a booster can be landed and recovered is in part a function of the mass of the payload and the orbit to be achieved. If that consumes so much fuel that there's not enough left to power a landing, the booster is expended. Expendable flights typically will be a job reserved for the oldest and most-flown boosters.
B1051's impressive resume includes launching Demo 1, the uncrewed Crew Dragon test flight that delivered Little Earth to the Space Station, launching the Canadian Space Agency's Radarsat, launching a broadcast satellite for SiriusXM, and launching no fewer than 10 loads of Starlinks.
It's often been the fleet leader since it was the first Falcon 9 to complete 8, 9, 10 and 12 flights. But sad to say, its 14th will be its last (not a dry eye in the house).
It's because SpaceX's loyal stalwart, 13 time veteran booster B1051 will be expended on its 14th and final flight launching two satellites called Galaxy 31 and 32 to a high geostationary orbit.
Whether a booster can be landed and recovered is in part a function of the mass of the payload and the orbit to be achieved. If that consumes so much fuel that there's not enough left to power a landing, the booster is expended. Expendable flights typically will be a job reserved for the oldest and most-flown boosters.
B1051's impressive resume includes launching Demo 1, the uncrewed Crew Dragon test flight that delivered Little Earth to the Space Station, launching the Canadian Space Agency's Radarsat, launching a broadcast satellite for SiriusXM, and launching no fewer than 10 loads of Starlinks.
It's often been the fleet leader since it was the first Falcon 9 to complete 8, 9, 10 and 12 flights. But sad to say, its 14th will be its last (not a dry eye in the house).