SpaceX Falcon 9 Sets New Reuse Record On 36th Flight From Florida

SpaceX set another rocket reuse milestone on Thursday morning as its most-flown Falcon 9 booster launched for a record-breaking 36th mission.

The rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:25 a.m. EDT in support of the Starlink 10-42 mission.

The launch added 29 broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit Starlink constellation, which now includes more than 10,700 satellites in orbit.

After leaving the launch pad, the Falcon 9 followed a north-easterly trajectory.

Weather officials predicted a 90 percent chance of favorable launch conditions, while monitoring the possibility of interference from cumulus clouds and offshore Atlantic showers.

Launch weather officers said light southwesterly winds were expected and noted that Saharan dust in the mid-level atmosphere could limit cumulus cloud development for both the launch day and backup opportunity.

The booster, designated B1067, first flew in June 2021 during the company’s 22nd Dragon mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract.

Since then, it has supported the Crew-3 and Crew-4 missions along with 24 Starlink satellite launches.

Just over eight minutes after liftoff, B1067 landed on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean.

The landing marked the 160th recovery for the vessel and the 635th booster landing achieved by SpaceX.