With the notable exception of the now retired Space Shuttle orbiters, essentially every object humanity ever shot into space has been single-use only. But since December of 2015, SpaceX has been landing and refurbishing their Falcon 9 boosters, with the end goal of operating their rockets more like cargo aircraft. Today, while it might go unnoticed to those who aren’t closely following the space industry, the bulk of the company’s launches are performed with boosters that have already completed multiple flights.
This reuse campaign has been so successful these last few years that the recent announcement the company had lost B1058 (Nitter) came as quite a surprise. The 41 meter (134 foot) tall booster had just completed its 19th flight on December 23rd, and had made what appeared to be a perfect landing on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions. But sometime after the live stream ended, SpaceX says high winds and powerful waves caused the booster to topple over.
B1058 with NASA “worm” logo ahead of its historic crewed flight.
Back in May of 2020, B1058 made history as the first privately-built rocket to carry humans into orbit when it sent NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken on their way to the International Space Station. This flight also marked the first time a crewed spacecraft had been launched from US soil since the final Shuttle mission, a milestone that earned B1058 the honor of having the iconic NASA “worm” logo emblazoned on its side.
Its next mission came two months later, when it carried Sout ..
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