SpaceX launches commercial satellite with first used Block 5 first stage
Capitalism in space: Last night SpaceX successfully placed a commercial communications satellite into orbit using a previously flown Block 5 first stage.
The turnaround for this first stage was only a little over two months. It successfully landed on the drone ship in the Atlantic, and they plan to fly it a third time later this year. You can watch the launch here.
The leaders in the 2018 launch race:
22 China
15 SpaceX
8 Russia
5 ULA
4 Japan
4 Europe
China still leads the U.S. 22 to 21 in the national rankings.
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Capitalism in space: Last night SpaceX successfully placed a commercial communications satellite into orbit using a previously flown Block 5 first stage.
The turnaround for this first stage was only a little over two months. It successfully landed on the drone ship in the Atlantic, and they plan to fly it a third time later this year. You can watch the launch here.
The leaders in the 2018 launch race:
22 China
15 SpaceX
8 Russia
5 ULA
4 Japan
4 Europe
China still leads the U.S. 22 to 21 in the national rankings.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
It would be interesting to track the count of launches vs boosters used as this will begin to widen significantly once SpaceX starts re-flying boosters many more times.
The post-Shuttle record for actual reuses of reusable space hardware is held by the now-retired #2 version of Blue Origin’s New Shepard. It flew five times. Could be that this now-once-reused Block 5 stage will surpass that record sometime next year. By that time, though, Blue may have upped its own record using the #3 version of New Shepard.
The least-flown Shuttle was the ill-fated Challenger. It flew 10 times, the last time to its destruction. It made it to space 9 times. The most-flown Shuttle was Discovery. It flew 39 times. A Falcon 9 Block 5 stage has a reasonable shot at surpassing the Challenger’s reuse mark. After three or four refurbs, a Block 5 stage could even exceed Discovery’s record sometime in the early 2020’s. BFR and BFS vehicles, though, seem likely to take over the reuse record book after that.
Whether or not this specific F9 wins any records is tough to say but when they actually finish the Block Five and stop fiddling with it, we should see a high number of reuses. Will be interesting to see how big their fleet is.