Launch Stuff

[Yazata]

B1062 launched for the 13th time this morning from Cape Canaveral, carrying 40 Oneweb satellites. Today's launch was only 26 days after its last launch, as SpaceX works on speeding up turn-arounds.

Here's B1062 departing from SLC40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station:

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1633909109924962304

And here it is returning to land at Cape Canaveral after successfully putting the satellites into orbit.

Right in the middle of the landing pad X!

(Just a few years ago, what you see here would have been dismissed as impossible.)

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1633911129729826818

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1633948219133800449

[Yazata]

B1062 (see post immediately above) is still alive and kicking!

Tonight it's scheduled to fly for a record 20th time! Payload will be more starlinks, the launch will be from slc-40 at Cape Canaveral space force station. Recovery will be at sea on Asog.

What's more, they are continuing to perfect fast turnarounds, since B1062 last flew just 28 days ago!

6:22 PM PDT, 9:22 PM EDT

It will be streamed all the usual places, including the official spaceX broadcast here:

https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1BdGYrMMomXJX

[Yazata]

Here's B1062 (and Jenny Hautman) after 1062's record 20th trip to space and back. In this photo 1062 is on its way back to Hanger X at Kennedy Space Center after ASOG returned it to Port Canaveral.

When Falcon 9 reuse began, their goal was to get ten flights out of them. (Piece of cake.) Now the target is 40 flights. (Gwynne has said that she sees no reason they can't do 100, provided they get periodic heavy maintainance. But she doesn't expect any to actually reach 100, because by then Starship will have taken over.)

[Image: GLfXFSOWUAATW8z?format=jpg&name=4096x4096]

[Yazata]

Yesterday SpaceX successfully conducted their 300th Falcon 9 first stage booster landing!

When they first proposed landing rockets, everyone said it was impossible

When they did it, everyone said it would never be reliable

When they did it repeatedly, everyone said it would never be economical

And here we are when Falcon 9's are launching about 90% of the total mass to orbit worldwide. China launches about 6%, everyone else (NASA, ULA, Russia, the European Space Agency, India, Japan...) splits the other 4%.

And despite it now being eight years since landing an orbital booster was demonstrated, SpaceX is still the only one to even attempt it.

(Blue has their New Glenn project which hopefully will reach orbit this year (but probably won't successfully land), China has several projects in work (hard to tell how close to success they are), Russia has plans for a reusable Soyuz class rocket but it's delayed by the Ukraine war and appears years away...)

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1782898782885339562

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Speaking of New Glenn, a NASA presentation at a conference listed a September 29 launch date for NASA's Escapade small-sat Mars orbiter, which is to be launched by New Glenn.

Hard to know how certain that launch date is, but there it is aspirationally.

[Yazata]

B1062 was just back in action for a record 21'st flight, less than a month since it flew last time!

Payload was a bunch of Starlinks and old veteran 1062 made it look easy, successfully landing on ASOG out in the Atlantic.

[Yazata]

B1062 just successfully flew for a record 22th time. Payload was 23 Starlink v.2 mini's. Landing was on JRTI out in the Atlantic. 40 day turn-around since it last flew.

[Yazata]

Here's B1067 landing with a suave assurance that tells us that this isn't the first time that it's done this.

It's the 25th time that 1067 has launched an orbital payload and then returned to land successfully. B1067 is the new leader among Falcon 9 boosters.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1877797603510992979

[Syne]

That is slick.

[Yazata]

SpaceX has just completed the 400th Falcon-9 orbital rocket landing!

The really amazing thing is that they have been doing it for ten years, and in all that time nobody else has been able to duplicate the feat! Not the Russians, the Chinese, NASA, legacy aerospace, Europe, Japan, India or anyone else.

Blue Origin is very close and their New Glenn will almost certainly do it this year. And the Chinese have several reusable rocket projects underway, but nobody outside China knows how close they are to success.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1881732223831080967

nsNS