SpaceX rolled a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket first stage into the hangar at Kennedy Space Center’s famed pad 39A on June 3, 2017. The booster is scheduled to help launch the BulgariaSat-1 communications satellite on June 17.
SpaceX is getting ready to launch a used Falcon 9 rocket for the second time ever.
The California-based company rolled a preflown Falcon 9 first stage into a hangar at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Saturday (June 3) — the same day that a (completely new) Falcon 9 launched a used SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station.
The used booster will help launch the BulgariaSat-1 communications satellite, which is scheduled to lift off June 17 from KSC's historic Launch Complex 39A. (Pad 39A was the jumping-off point for most of NASA's space shuttle and Apollo moon missions.)
This particular Falcon 9 first stage has flown once before. On Jan. 14, the booster helped haul 10 communications satellites to low Earth orbit for the company Iridium. That mission, which lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, was SpaceX's first since a Falcon 9 exploded during a routine prelaunch test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, KSC's next-door neighbor, on Sept. 1, 2016.
SpaceX has employed a preflown Falcon 9 first stage once before, using one March 30 during the successful launch of the SES-10 communications satellite. The company has landed boosters 11 times during orbital missions to date.
Such activities — and the reflight of Dragon cargo capsules — are part of SpaceX's effort to develop fully and rapidly reusable spaceflight systems. Such technology could open the heavens to exploration by slashing costs, company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.
The Dragon that launched from Pad 39A on June 3 arrived at the International Space Station Monday (June 5), delivering about 6,000 lbs. (2,700 kilograms) of scientific experiments, hardware and other supplies to crewmembers aboard the orbiting lab.
The robotic capsule is scheduled to return to Earth for a soft ocean splashdown early next month.
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The_New_Caretaker on June 9th, 2017 at 16:19 UTC »
Serious question: when can we expect launch prices to begin dropping if this relaunching rockets keep working out?
intergalactic512 on June 9th, 2017 at 15:23 UTC »
Is there an article anywhere that details what exactly SpaceX does to retrofit or prepare a rocket for second launch?
bobbyjrsc on June 9th, 2017 at 14:56 UTC »
In the next years SpaceX will have a lot of end-of-life rockets that will be probably donated to museums around the world.