With clearing skies and moderate winds, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket rideshare mission safely launched into space on Thursday. The first stage then sent its upper stage and a payload with 105 small satellites on its way into low Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 first stage made a smooth landing back near its launch site.

Remarkably, this single Falcon 9 rocket first stage has now launched 550 satellites into orbit, as well as one Cargo Dragon and one Crew Dragon. It has flown, on average, every two months since its first launch. It would seem that rocket re-use is more than a fad. //

niwax Ars Tribunus Militum et Subscriptor

Hispalensis wrote:

Quote:

Upon launch, it will become the third Falcon 9 first stage that SpaceX has flown 10 times.

First reaction: hmm, that's interesting...

Delayed reaction: 10 times? That is insane!

It is funny how our brain quickly accepts the extraordinary as the new normal

This booster has delivered two Dragon capsules to the ISS, first with two astronauts then with 3t of supplies, plus a GEO commsat, 295 LEO commsats, 9 traffic monitoring satellites, 48 earth observation satellites, an in-orbit data transfer demonstration constellation, a space tug with 18 payloads, a synthetic aperture radar and an optical spectrum observatory and 10-15 random other cubesats.

That is before todays launch of some 105 new satellites.

I'll repeat what I said way back on SSO-A: The unbelievable projections of the small sat industry have come true, only to be gobbled up by a workhorse F9 on it's 10th flight.