SpaceX adds fresh Falcon 9 booster to the fleet after drone ship recovery - Teslarati

SpaceX has added a second new Falcon 9 booster to its rocket fleet in just one month after B1060 safely returned to shore aboard drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) on July 4th.

Exactly 31 days prior, Falcon 9 booster B1058 sailed into Port Canaveral aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) on June 3rd after becoming the first private rocket in history to launch astronauts into orbit.

The 10th overall Starlink launch – also SpaceX’s second Starlink rideshare – is on track to lift off with Falcon 9 booster B1051 on its fifth flight no earlier than (NET) 11:59 am EDT (16:59 UTC) on July 8th.

Initially scheduled around June 22nd, B1051 no longer has a shot at beating SpaceX’s booster turnaround record, but it could snag a four-way tie with Falcon 9 boosters B1048, B1052, and B1053 at 74 days between launches.

Perhaps just 11 days after that, another Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to attempt the United States’ first East Coast polar launch in half a century with Argentina’s SAOCOM 1B Earth radar satellite mission.

If successfully recovered, SpaceX’s fleet will grow to seven boosters strong – likely more than enough to sustain an average cadence of one launch every 10-14 days.