SpaceX Launch Signals Quicker Pace of Booster Refurbishment

(Bloomberg) -- SpaceX is planning to launch a Falcon 9 rocket that flew earlier this month, marking the fastest turnaround yet for the company in refurbishing a previously flown booster.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 first-stage booster taking 53 of the company’s Starlink satellites to orbit Friday last launched on April 8 for the Axiom Space Inc. private crew flight to the International Space Station. It will be the booster’s sixth flight overall and the sixth SpaceX launch in April. The company lands its boosters on a drone ship at sea, or near the launch pad. 

The 21-day span shaves nearly a week off Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s previous 27-day record for processing a flown booster. The Elon Musk-founded company has decreased the amount of work needed to process its boosters for reflight given SpaceX’s rapid launch rate, including 16 launches in the first four months of 2022.

Benji Reed, a SpaceX engineer who oversees the company’s human spaceflight programs, said Thursday at a commercial space conference that a high flight rate for rockets is critical to achieving a robust space economy because a frequent launch schedule “lets you learn, lets you grow.”

“How often does an airplane take off on this planet?” Reed asked on a panel at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics event. “That’s how often we should be going to the stars. That’s what it takes.”

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