SpaceX Sets Rocket-Reuse Milestone With Satellite Launch

HAWTHORNE, CA — Hawthorne-based SpaceX set a record Tuesday for the reuse of its workhorse Falcon 9 rockets when it launched another batch of internet satellites into orbit.

The Falcon 9 rocket that was used in Tuesday morning's launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida has been used in five previous missions. It is intended to become the first to ever be successfully launched and recovered six times.

Tuesday's mission launched at 7:31 a.m. California time and propelled 58 Starlink satellites into orbit, continuing to build SpaceX founder Elon Musk's planned worldwide internet array offering low-cost broadband access to traditionally under-served areas. Roughly 600 Starlink satellites are already in orbit.

Tuesday's launch also deployed three Earth-imaging satellites for a private company known as Planet. Those three satellites will be deployed into orbit first—about 12 and a half minutes after liftoff—followed by the Starlink satellites 46 minutes after liftoff, according to SpaceX.

After launch and second-stage separation, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket was maneuvered back to Earth. One "fairing half" of the rocket was caught by the recovery vessel Ms. Tree, and the second fairing half made a "soft water-landing" in the Atlantic Ocean, according to SpaceX.

The Falcon 9 first stage was first used in a satellite launch in September 2018. It was used again in a January 2019 launch, then again in three more Starlink satellite launches, in May 2019, January 2020 and June 2020, according to SpaceX.

Several Falcon 9 rockets have flown five missions for SpaceX, but this will be the first to fly six times.

"Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond," the company explains on its website. "Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket. Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access."

Recovering rockets has become a hallmark of SpaceX flights, designed to slash the cost of missions by reusing the equipment in future launches.

Deployment of 58 Starlink satellites confirmed pic.twitter.com/c8u2WqaD1J
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 18, 2020

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/q6t6QXO5Cl
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 18, 2020

- City News Service and Patch Editor Nicole Charky contributed to this report.

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