this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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SpaceX poised to break Space Shuttle pad record with Falcon 9 Starlink mission (spaceflightnow.com)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/spacex
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SpaceX will hit 83 orbital launches from its KSC pad. That’s one more than the 82 shuttle launches that took place over the 30-year history of that program.

How cool!!

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[–] threelonmusketeers 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They are also catching up to Shuttle on vehicle reuse too. The flight numbers for the most flown Falcon 9 boosters (e.g. B1062, 20 flights) are approaching that of the least flown (surviving) Space Shuttle (Endeavour, 25 flights). With Falcon booster turnaround times of around a month, we could see Endeavour surpassed later this year.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Orbital class booster" vs "actual orbital reentry" is still a biiiiitttt different on the loading, but it's interesting nonetheless.

[–] threelonmusketeers 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Good point, a better comparison would be to Dragon, or (eventually) Starship. Still a ways to go on those, as the most flown Dragon (C206 Endeavour) is only on its 5th flight.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's an amazing milestone. Makes me wonder how they manage Musk from fucking shit up every few weeks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Right? That's kind-of the weird thing, this milestone is very much attributable to Musk (and of course the countless engineers that make it happen) despite his... eccentricity, shall we say.

[–] threelonmusketeers 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I feel like Gwynne probably plays a role in reigning in some of Elon's more rash decisions (such as when he tried to cancel Falcon Heavy).