By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Online Tech Guru
  • News
  • PC/Windows
  • Mobile
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • More
    • Gaming
    • Accessories
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Press Release
Reading: Falcon 9 Milestones Vindicate SpaceX’s ‘Dumb’ Approach to Reuse
Best Deal
Font ResizerAa
Online Tech GuruOnline Tech Guru
  • News
  • Mobile
  • PC/Windows
  • Gaming
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • Accessories
Search
  • News
  • PC/Windows
  • Mobile
  • Apps
  • Gadgets
  • More
    • Gaming
    • Accessories
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Press Release

Verizon is down for many customers in the US

News Room News Room 30 August 2025
FacebookLike
InstagramFollow
YoutubeSubscribe
TiktokFollow
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
© Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Online Tech Guru > News > Falcon 9 Milestones Vindicate SpaceX’s ‘Dumb’ Approach to Reuse
News

Falcon 9 Milestones Vindicate SpaceX’s ‘Dumb’ Approach to Reuse

News Room
Last updated: 30 August 2025 11:09
By News Room 5 Min Read
Share
SHARE

As SpaceX’s Starship vehicle gathered all of the attention this week, the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket continued to hit some impressive milestones.

Both occurred during relatively anonymous launches of the company’s Starlink satellites but are nonetheless notable because they underscore the value of first-stage reuse, which SpaceX has pioneered over the past decade.

The first milestone occurred on Wednesday morning with the launch of the Starlink 10-56 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first stage that launched these satellites, Booster 1096, was making its second launch and successfully landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship. Strikingly, this was the 400th time SpaceX has executed a drone ship landing.

Then, less than 24 hours later, another Falcon 9 rocket launched the Starlink 10-11 mission from a nearby launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. This first stage, Booster 1067, subsequently returned and landed on another drone ship, A Shortfall of Gravitas.

This is a special booster, having made its debut in June 2021 and launching a wide variety of missions, including two Crew Dragon vehicles to the International Space Station and some Galileo satellites for the European Union. On Thursday, the rocket made its 30th flight, the first time a Falcon 9 booster has hit that level of experience.

A Decade in the Making

These milestones came about one decade after SpaceX began to have some success with first-stage reuse.

The company first made a controlled entry of the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage in September 2013, during the first flight of version 1.1 of the vehicle. This proved the viability of the concept of supersonic retropropulsion, which was, until that time, just theoretical.

This involves igniting the rocket’s nine Merlin engines while the vehicle is traveling faster than the speed of sound through the upper atmosphere, with external temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to the blunt force of this reentry, the engines in the outer ring of the rocket wanted to get splayed out, the company’s chief of propulsion at the time, Tom Mueller, told me for the book Reentry. Success on the first try seemed improbable.

He recalled watching this launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and observing reentry as a camera aboard SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s private jet tracked the rocket. The first stage made it all the way down, intact.

“I remember watching the live video and seeing the light of the engine on the ocean,” Mueller said. “And holy shit, it was there. The rocket came down, landed in the ocean, and blew up. That was unreal. It worked the first time. I was like, get the barge ready. Get the landing legs ready. This shit works.”

It would take a good deal more tinkering and experimentation, but by December 2015, SpaceX had landed its first rocket on a pad along the Florida coast. The first drone ship landing followed in April 2016. A little less than a year after this, SpaceX reflew a Falcon 9 stage for the first time.

Silencing the Doubters

Many people in the industry were skeptical about SpaceX’s approach to reuse. In the mid-2010s, both the European and Japanese space agencies were looking to develop their next generation of rockets. In both cases, Europe with the Ariane 6 and Japan with the H3, the space agencies opted for traditional, expendable rockets instead of pushing toward reuse.

As a result, both of these competitors for commercial satellite launches are now about a decade behind SpaceX in terms of launch technology. If the ambitious Starship rocket is successful, that gap could widen further.

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Copy Link
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Developers Detail Clever System That Increases the DLC’s Difficulty Based on How Much of the Base Game You’ve Played

News Room News Room 30 August 2025
FacebookLike
InstagramFollow
YoutubeSubscribe
TiktokFollow

Trending

Security News This Week: DOGE Put Everyone’s Social Security Data at Risk, Whistleblower Claims

As students returned to school this week, WIRED spoke to a self-proclaimed leader of a…

30 August 2025

No, a Windows update probably didn’t brick your SSD

For the last week or two, reports have been circulating that recent Windows 11 updates…

30 August 2025

The Blood of Dawnwalker Interview: Killing Time and Major NPCs in Ex-CDPR Devs’ New RPG

If you’ve played more than a few role-playing games, you’ll know how your hero's journey…

30 August 2025
News

Gear News of the Week: Apple’s iPhone Event Gets a Date, and Plaud Upgrades Its AI Note-Taker

Apple has officially set a date for its iPhone September event, which is due to take place on September 9. This year's launch will be held at the Steve Jobs…

News Room 30 August 2025

Your may also like!

News

What to Look for When Buying a Sleeping Mask

News Room 30 August 2025
News

Scammers Will Try to Trick You Into Filling Out Google Forms. Don’t Fall for It

News Room 30 August 2025
News

The 20 best Labor Day deals you can grab for $100 or less

News Room 30 August 2025
Gaming

400 People at This Massive Support Studio Worked on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered — but You Probably Don’t Know They Exist

News Room 30 August 2025

Our website stores cookies on your computer. They allow us to remember you and help personalize your experience with our site.

Read our privacy policy for more information.

Quick Links

  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
Advertise with us

Socials

Follow US
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?