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520龙行天下
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SpaceX（Nasdaq: SPCX）plans to launch 29 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral on Monday using a Falcon 9 rocket that has previously flown 17 missions.
The launch is scheduled for 10:49 a.m. Eastern Time. If all goes smoothly, the B1085 booster will land about eight minutes later on an autonomous recovery ship in the Atlantic.
According to SpaceX standards, the 18th flight is routine operations. Another booster, B1067, just completed a record-breaking 36th flight last month.
This type of standardization is the foundation of SpaceX’s business model. By reusing rockets rather than discarding them after a single mission, the company can carry out launches more frequently while lowering the cost of each mission.
NASA has proven that reuse is feasible, but it has not achieved low cost or fast turnaround.
Reusable spacecraft are not a new concept.
NASA’s Space Shuttles and their solid rocket boosters repeatedly flew missions over three decades. The Shuttle Endeavour alone completed 39 missions—more than any Falcon 9 booster has flown to date.
The problem is that Shuttle maintenance remained costly and time-consuming.
NASA initially envisioned a turnaround time of two weeks, but it was never achieved in fewer than 55 days, and a later NASA analysis estimated the cost per launch at about $1.5 billion. Today, a Falcon 9 launch costs about $74 million.
Flight-proven hardware is now the norm.
In documents recently submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SpaceX said it has completed about 650 orbital launches, with more than 540 using flight-proven Falcon rockets. For years, it has no longer been the company’s regular operating model to build a brand-new booster for every mission.
The result is a launch cadence unmatched by anyone else. The Starlink mission launched from California on Saturday was the 92nd flight of the Falcon 9 in 2026, and Monday’s mission will be the 93rd. By comparison, Europe has conducted only 334 space launches in total since 1970.
Kalshi traders predict that SpaceX will complete 156 launches this year.
China is now trying to land on the rockets that SpaceX has reused.
The launch is scheduled for 10:49 a.m. Eastern Time. If all goes smoothly, the B1085 booster will land about eight minutes later on an autonomous recovery ship in the Atlantic.
According to SpaceX standards, the 18th flight is routine operations. Another booster, B1067, just completed a record-breaking 36th flight last month.
This type of standardization is the foundation of SpaceX’s business model. By reusing rockets rather than discarding them after a single mission, the company can carry out launches more frequently while lowering the cost of each mission.
NASA has proven that reuse is feasible, but it has not achieved low cost or fast turnaround.
Reusable spacecraft are not a new concept.
NASA’s Space Shuttles and their solid rocket boosters repeatedly flew missions over three decades. The Shuttle Endeavour alone completed 39 missions—more than any Falcon 9 booster has flown to date.
The problem is that Shuttle maintenance remained costly and time-consuming.
NASA initially envisioned a turnaround time of two weeks, but it was never achieved in fewer than 55 days, and a later NASA analysis estimated the cost per launch at about $1.5 billion. Today, a Falcon 9 launch costs about $74 million.
Flight-proven hardware is now the norm.
In documents recently submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SpaceX said it has completed about 650 orbital launches, with more than 540 using flight-proven Falcon rockets. For years, it has no longer been the company’s regular operating model to build a brand-new booster for every mission.
The result is a launch cadence unmatched by anyone else. The Starlink mission launched from California on Saturday was the 92nd flight of the Falcon 9 in 2026, and Monday’s mission will be the 93rd. By comparison, Europe has conducted only 334 space launches in total since 1970.
Kalshi traders predict that SpaceX will complete 156 launches this year.
China is now trying to land on the rockets that SpaceX has reused.
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