For the first time ever, two SpaceX Falcon 9 amplifiers – two new successful Starlink launches and landings – met at Port Canaveral, creating the first ‘traffic jam’ of its kind.
On March 11, Falcon 9 booster B1058 secured its sixth launch and landing after supporting SpaceX’s sixth dedicated Starlink launch (Starlink-20) this year. 74 hours later, a separate Falcon 9 rocket hoisted from SpaceX’s second East Coast launch platform and successfully sent another group of 60 Starlink satellites (Starlink-21) on their way to orbit. For its role in the mission, booster B1051 became the first Falcon first phase to be launched and landed nine times – just one shy away from a ten-flight reusable target SpaceX has been chasing for years.
Apart from the new standard for Falcon reusability, 120 satellites in orbit within three days and the record of SpaceX for the shortest turnaround between two East Coast launches, the Starlink launches both break Falcon 9 boosters. the right place and time to cross paths as they prepare for future flights.
When SpaceX began launching its orbital launch cadence – largely thanks to Starlink – during 2020, it became clear that the company would eventually start finding new pressure points as it pushed its fleet of reusable rockets and their recovery assets to new limits. By 2021, the deliberate tension over the broader SpaceX launch pipeline has become even clearer.
In just ten weeks to 2021, SpaceX has already completed eight orbital launches, averaging one nine days or 40 launches per year if extrapolated by the end of 2021. Just two days before Falcon 9 Booster B1058’s return to Port Canaveral after successful Starlink 20 launch, Falcon 9 Booster B1049 – last task to launch Starlink 17 on March 4 – shut down port processing and by road returned to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) or Kennedy Space Center (KSC) after preparing for its ninth flight.
At that point, it became clear that it was only a matter of time before two amplifiers would occupy SpaceX’s Port Canaveral berths simultaneously. Two days later, the record-breaking Falcon 9 booster B1051 arrived in port and was greeted by booster B1058 – legs retracted, standing vertically waiting to be ‘broken’ (brought horizontally) for transport.
It’s hard to imagine a better or more synergistic pair of amplifiers (or forgive the buzzword) to appear in port together. On their separate launch debuts, Falcon 9 B1051 supports Crew Dragon’s spectacular flawless, unmanned launch debut, while Falcon 9 B1058 becomes the first private rocket in history to be launched by American astronauts 14 months later. The two missions, known as Demo-1 and Demo-2, are probably the most important milestone in the history of modern American spaceflight, which ended a period of ten years where the US was unable to launch own astronauts.
Just a week after launching the rocket’s Demo-1 debut in 2019, Falcon 9 B1051 is SpaceX’s new “life leader” of the booster fleet (the most flown rocket) after averaging one launch ever 11 weeks ago in the past two years had. Aside from supporting Cargo Dragon 2’s launch debut last December, the Falcon 9 B1058 has flown six times, achieving an even more impressive launch every eight weeks. Together, the two amplifiers have released 15 orbital launches of about 190 tons of satellites and Dragon spacecraft in their two-year career, significantly more than the maximum payload of Saturn V – the largest rocket successfully launched.
Falcon 9 reportedly can fly B1051 for the tenth time already in April 2021.
