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[Eric Berger] Rocket Report: Falcon 9 may smash reuse record; Relativity roving to Texas? (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

On March 12 a Falcon 9 rocket first stage made its third launch, lofting the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions into low-Earth orbit for NASA. Following the successful launch, the first stage landed near the launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Now, this same stage could launch again on Thursday night from Vandenberg, carrying the NROL-57 mission for the US Space Force.

Rapid reuse is a thing ... The launch is scheduled for 06:49 UTC, and if it takes place it would be just nine days and four hours since the SPHEREx mission. This would shatter the company's previous booster turnaround, set in November, of a little more than 13 days.

Since this article was posted, the launch did indeed occur at the scheduled time, setting a new record for Falcon 9 booster turnaround.