SpaceX pushes booster recovery limits with satellite launch

SpaceX pushed one of its most-used boosters to its limits with a launch Tuesday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A Falcon 9 rocket using a booster for the 22nd time managed a successful recovery landing even though it was used to fly its payload, a pair of the European Commission’s Galileo L13 satellites, to a medium-Earth orbit. The last time SpaceX flew such a mission, it didn’t even try to recover the booster because it required more propellant than a low-Earth orbit mission.

Liftoff came at 6:50 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40, and the booster stuck the landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions a little more than eight minutes later.

SpaceX had to expend a booster, meaning let it fall back into the Atlantic, for the Galileo L12 mission back in April so SpaceX could provide the performance needed to get the payload to orbit.

“Data from that mission informed subtle design and operational changes, including mass reductions and trajectory adjustments, that will allow us to safely recover and reuse this booster,” SpaceX posted on its website ahead of the new mission.

The flight Tuesday still stressed the booster, though, as the reentry trajectory meant it would endure greater heat and dynamic pressure than normal, the company said.

Live video showed the booster hitting 5,430 mph before its reentry burn to slow it down on descent.

“Although the reentry conditions are on the higher end of past missions, they are still acceptable,” SpaceX stated.

“This landing attempt will test the bounds of recovery, giving us valuable data on the design of the vehicle in these elevated entry conditions. This in turn will help us innovate on future vehicle designs to make our vehicles more robust and rapidly reusable while expanding into more challenging reentry conditions.”

The launch marks the third SpaceX booster to hit 22 launches and landings. One other booster has flown 23 times, but was not able to stick to the 23rd landing, so to date 22 successful landings is the record. The company is aiming to reuse boosters as many as 40 times.

This booster had previously been used on two human spaceflights—Crew-3 and Crew-4—as well as two cargo resupply launches to the International Space Station, among others.

This marked the 65th launch from all providers from the Space Coast in 2024, with all but four coming from SpaceX.

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