SPACE: A Falcon 9 booster turns 5 years old—and just set a remarkable reuse record.

A little more than five years ago, a shiny white Falcon 9 rocket made its debut flight, boosting a Cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Over the next year, it would launch a pair of astronaut missions and a handful of commercial spacecraft.

But since then, this first stage booster, designated B 1067, has mostly flown Starlink missions. It has launched them one after another, always returning safely to a drone ship before undergoing refurbishment and flying again. Sometimes it has flown twice in a single month.

On Monday morning, B 1067 once again took to the skies, launching 29 Starlink Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit from Florida. Upon landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the vehicle completed its 35th mission overall, retaining its title as fleet leader for SpaceX.

The successful launch brings SpaceX closer to its most recently stated goal of qualifying its Falcon 9 first stage vehicles to support 40 missions each. Since that goal was outlined more than two years ago and the company has continued flying its experienced boosters safely across dozens of missions, SpaceX may be intending to push past 40 missions.

To date, the only company in the world breaking SpaceX’s records is SpaceX.

That aside, the goal is to get Starship up to hundreds of flights with minimal refurbs in between. The lessons really only SpaceX has learned (the hard way) on reusability for Falcon 9 ought to be a huge leg up on the second generation of reusable rockets.

FROM HOLLY CHISM:  Normalcy Bias: Look closer…things aren’t always what they seem to be. 

#CommissionEarned

Look closer. The things that you’re assuming you’re seeing? May not be what you think. Is that really a mouse, or is it a Brownie? Is that really an owl? Is that polished gemstone a stone…or an egg? We take so many things for granted. Some of them may be harmless, but many are a lot less so. I wonder how many people ignore red flags every day, because they only see what they expect to see? This collection takes what’s “normal” and asks “What if it’s something more?” Contains a Liquid Diet Chronicles prequel short story.

EXACTLY:

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

HAHA. ONLY WHEN IT SUITS THE NEEDS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT.