SpaceX ready for historic 10th flight of a Falcon 9 as Starlink constellation expands - NASASpaceFlight.com - NASASpaceflight.com

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SpaceX is set for the historic tenth flight of a Falcon 9 rocket booster on the Starlink V1.0 L27 mission

This mission will mark SpaceX’s 14th orbital launch in 2021, the 11th Starlink flight this year, and SpaceX’s second orbital launch and third flight overall in less than five days this month

The shell currently contains approximately 1,456 operational working satellites, of which about 882 are in their final orbit, meaning this is the third-to-last Starlink launch before all Starlinks for the the first shell are in space. 

For this mission, SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 Block 5 booster B1051-10 with the “-10” signifying the booster’s 10th flight

Booster B1051 is the second oldest operational first stage booster in the Falcon 9 fleet, debuting in prominence with the  uncrewed Demo-1 flight of Crew Dragon to the International Space Station on 2 March 2019

On 30 March 2017, SpaceX reused a Falcon 9 booster for the first time when SES-10 launched from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center under the power of core B1021, which a year prior became the first booster to land on SpaceX’s floating platform Of Course I Still Love You

In May 2018, SpaceX debuted an upgraded Block 5 variant of the Falcon 9

Since the first flight of Falcon 9 Block 5, SpaceX has transitioned from simply manufacturing Falcon 9 first stages to operating a fleet of reusable rockets

Although the company still manufactures new boosters, they are becoming increasingly rare to see on the launch pad; in fact, not a single new first stage has launched so far in 2021

In December 2020, Sirius-XM became the first paying customer to use a “high-flight number” booster when the SXM-7 satellite successfully launched on the seventh flight of booster B1051

In 2021, SpaceX has so far beaten this record six times, with two turnaround times at just 27 days

Two day later, SpaceX will launch the CRS-22 mission on 3 June using booster B1067-1 (the first new core to enter the fleet in 2021) launching from LC-39A

Since Starlink V1.0 L8, 14 Falcon 9 flights have not required a static fire test due to both the reliability of flight-proven first stage boosters and the majority of those missions being internal Starlink flights

This will mark the 83rd landing of a Falcon 9 booster and the 21st landing attempt on Just Read the Instructions

Showing no issues leading up to its 9th flight, Falcon 9 B1051 lifted off at 6:01am EDT and landed a few minutes later, setting itself up to possibly become the first booster to reach 10 flights!https://t.co/g5VaLF6ZcK pic.twitter.com/tjC05MDFxr

Meanwhile, the second stage will continue to haul the Starlink stack into its initial parking orbit.  The payload fairings will separate 3 minutes 04 seconds into flight and parachute into the Atlantic where the Shelia Bordelon will recover them from the water approximately 680 km downrange of the launch site. 

The second stage and Starlink payload will reach their initial parking orbit 8 minutes 47 seconds after launch