SpaceX launches 100th Falcon 9 mission with fleet-leading rocket from Florida
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The most experienced Falcon 9 rocket in SpaceX's fleet vaulted off its Cape Canaveral pad Tuesday, delivering 60 Starlink internet satellites to low-Earth orbit and flipping around for its seventh successful landing to date.
"For the seventh time, this Falcon has landed," Kate Tice, a reliability engineer at SpaceX, said after the 162-foot first stage conducted an autonomous landing on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship 250 miles northeast of Florida.
The accomplishment makes this booster, designated B1049, the most experienced in SpaceX's fleet. If post-launch inspections look good, it'll be cleared for an eighth flight, pushing the company closer and closer to CEO Elon Musk's stated goal of flying rockets 10 times with minimal refurbishment.
Other components of Falcon 9 rockets, such as nose cones, are sometimes recovered and re-flown, though the second stages that boost the payloads close to their final orbits are not. SpaceX's reusability efforts primarily focus on the first stage, which by far is the most expensive thanks to its size and nine Merlin main engines.
Tuesday's mission launched another milestone for the California-based company: 100 Falcon 9 launches since its introduction in 2010. But with 23 total Falcon 9 missions this year, that means SpaceX has flown nearly a quarter of its entire 10-year portfolio in 2020 alone.
Of the 27 total Space Coast launches this year, 14 have been for the Starlink internet constellation, which is now delivering $99-a-month service to users in northern latitudes like Canada, Washington, and Michigan. Some prospective customers located farther south who signed up for public beta access could begin getting invitations to join early next year.
The only hardware needed to gain access to the network is a 19-inch dish and wireless router, which customers purchase at $499 before monthly fees kick in. While not as fast as some ground-based internet providers, Starlink's 50 mbps to 150 mbps speeds offer plenty of bandwidth for the average American household focused on streaming video, working from home, and gaming.
For others like remote emergency or military personnel, Starlink has already made inroads and is poised to grow in those fields, too.
To date, SpaceX has launched just under 960 of the flat-packed satellites to an orbit of about 350 miles. Though a few batches have degraded orbits and ultimately burned up in the atmosphere, between 800 and 850 remain.
The Space Coast's next mission, meanwhile, will come in the form of yet another Falcon 9. Teams at Kennedy Space Center will launch an uncrewed Cargo Dragon capsule packed with thousands of pounds of supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station at 11:39 a.m. Dec. 5.
Follow Emre Kelly on Twitter at @EmreKelly
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX launches 100th mission with Florida fleet-leading rocket
