October 25th saw SpaceX launch its 135th launch mission this year. The rocket carried a batch of 28 Starlink satellites in what was another routine mission for SpaceX, although it set a record and beats the total launched in 2024 by SpaceX. The launch was from Vandenburg Spaceforce Base in California.
The launch used Booster #1081 which flew for the 19th time. Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1081 completed an autonomous landing on the waiting drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’. This was the 160th landing on this vessel and the 523rd booster landing to date.
But a few hours prior to this launch SpaceX carried a Spanish satellite (SpainSat NG II ) into a high Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral. The satellite was built by Airbus and will take a few months to rach its geostationary orbital position. The booster used on this launch – Booster 1076 – was ‘expended’ and its full power was needed to achieve the transfer orbit for the satellite, and thus it did not return for reuse.
There was a time when Elon Musk was worried whether the Falcon 9 booster’s would achieve five reuses, then how about 10, then “what if they could achieve 20 landings and relaunches/”. Now those sorts of reuses are commonplace.
But Booster 1076 used for the Spanish launch was used a spectacular 22 times.
The first stage booster supporting the Spanish mission previously launched
· CRS-26,
· OneWeb Launch 16, 40 satellites
· Intelsat IS-40e
· SES O3b mPOWER-C, two satellites
· Ovzon-3
· Eutelsat 26D
· Turksat 6A
· Maxar 2
· SXM-9
· and 12 separate Starlink missions and 266 craft
The launch cadence continues for SpaceX with three confirmed launches this week with action on October 27th, 28th and 29th.
