One of SpaceX’s Rockets has Flown 22 Times

Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week’s newsletter is 578 words, a 4-minute read.

Table of Contents

• 1 Big Thing: One of SpaceX’s Rockets has Flown 22 …

• 2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

• 3. A Crypto Entrepreneur Bought a Flight on a Spac …

• 4. Upcoming Launches & Missions

1 Big Thing: One of SpaceX’s Rockets has Flown 22 Times

This Past Sunday, SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets and deployed a bunch of Arctic broadband satellites.

Something Special: After its launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the Falcon 9’s booster landed safely on a drone ship in the ocean.

• This marks the 22nd time in a row that this booster has been flown, recovered, refurbished, and re-launched.

• Such a ridiculous amount of reusability was completely unheard of until recently.

Former Dreams: Just 20 years ago, reusing spacecraft in a meaningful, cost-efficient way was nothing more than a pipe dream.

• The Space Shuttle, retired in 2014, originally promised high levels of reusability and cost savings.

• In reality, it ended up being really expensive and time-consuming to refurbish the Shuttle before it could be flown again.

Rapid Reusability: The Falcon 9’s reusability will serve as a blueprint for SpaceX’s new Starship, which aims to be the most rapidly reusable spacecraft ever developed.

Future Plans: The goal of Starship - and many other spacecraft currently in the early stages of development - is to be able to take off, land, and take off again multiple times in one day, similar to commercial airliners.

• SpaceX says that the development of rapidly reusable spacecraft is the only way in which humanity will become a multi-planetary species.

2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

1. A Chinese rocket stage exploded and broke up into hundreds of pieces of space junk. (SpaceNews)

2. Rocket Lab launched its 10th mission this weekend. (Space)

3. Mars and Jupiter will soon be closer to each other in the night sky than they have since 2018. (NPR)

3. A Crypto Entrepreneur Bought a Flight on a SpaceX Crew Dragon

Crypto Entrepreneur Chun Wang has purchased a private flight from SpaceX on their infamous Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Coming Soon: The mission is slated to launch as early as late 2024, carrying Wang as well as Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway (vehicle commander), Eric Philips of Australia (pilot), and Rabea Rogge of Germany (mission specialist).

Mission Purpose: The mission will study Earth’s poles, flying a somewhat unique orbit that will cover auroras and other anomalies at the North and South Pole.

• SpaceX will also use the mission to test the effects of space travel on the human body - critical data for all missions that follow.

Private Eyes: If the mission manages to launch before the end of the year, it’ll be SpaceX’s 3rd private mission flown this year. Private missions like these were unheard of just a few short years ago.

4. Upcoming Launches & Missions

SPECIAL EXCITING NEWS: If you refer just 3 friends (used to be 5, now it’s 3) to my newsletter, I’ll send you a free copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s A Brief Welcome to the Universe. Use the link below to share and get credit for your referrals!

Thanks as always,

-Michael