The Falcon 9 booster is now 5 years old and has built an incredible record of reusability

More than five years ago, the shiny Falcon 9 rocket made its first flight, lifting the Cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. In the following year, it will launch astronaut flights and a few commercial flights.

But since then, the first auxiliary unit, called B 1067, has been running Starlink missions. Launching them one after the other, they always return safely to the ship before repairing it and flying off again. Sometimes it flies twice in one month.

Monday morning, B 1067 took off again, launching 29 Starlink Internet satellites into low-Earth orbit from Florida. On landing at Less Gravitas A ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the vehicle completed its 35th mission, maintaining its title as the leader of the SpaceX fleet.

Is 40 the target, or will it be increased?

The successful launch brings SpaceX closer to its recently stated goal of qualifying its first Falcon 9 vehicles support every 40 missions. Since that goal was announced more than two years ago and the company continues to run its own missions, SpaceX wants to push 40 missions.

We take the Falcon 9 rocket for granted. Now it starts so often – several times a week – that its flights never happen. Even the most important event like the launch of the 35th is landing, bringing it closer to space Discovery39 records of flying in the air for almost four decades, it seems not worth mentioning.

But in reality, the Falcon 9 rocket is the foundation of SpaceX’s success today. And whatever one thinks about the company’s upcoming IPO – whether it is a financial crisis or a long-awaited opportunity for investors to own a share of SpaceX – the calculation is due to the Falcon 9 vehicle.