SpaceX confirms the launch of Falcon 9 for the third time

This will mark as the first time the rocket will be used more than twice.

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SpaceX has re-used its Falcon 9 rocket 16 times, but the company is yet to use a single first stage more than twice. However, back in May, the company introduced a newer version of its Falcon 9 rocket called as Block 5 that is optimized for reuse across multiple flights.

 
SpaceX confirms the launch of Falcon 9 for the third time

SpaceX has since flown a few Block 5 rockets twice, but it has not taken the step of flying one of these rockets for the third time. This could happen very soon, according to Lars Hoffman, senior director of government sales for SpaceX.

 

"We've launched Falcon 9 over 60 times," Hoffman said at the Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium. "We've landed our first stage booster 30 times now. And relaunched 16 times. We're about to relaunch a booster for the third time. So we're turning this into routine access to space. High-reliability, higher-performance, lower-cost access to space; that opens it up to everybody."

The firm is yet to make things official, but currently, SpaceX plans on reusing a Falcon 9 rocket for the third time to launch a rideshare mission of dozens of small satellites for Spaceflight. The mission is slated for November 19, according to calendar maintained by Spaceflight Now.

"For those that know rockets, this is a ridiculously hard thing," Elon Musk said in May. "It has taken us since, man, since 2002. Sixteen years of extreme effort and many, many iterations and thousands of small but important development changes to get to where we think this is even possible."

Previously, Elon Musk announced the company's first passenger for the Moon trip. Yusaku Maezawa, 42, will be the first passenger to into space through SpaceX's BFR. Maezawa is a Japanese billionaire and founder of online fashion mall Zozotown. Musk previously hinted the first person to go on this trip might be Japanese.

Maezawa has a reputation of shelling out big bucks. He once dropped over $110 million (£84 million, AU$154 million) on a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 2017.

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