Aug. 31 (UPI) — Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched 28 more satellites into low-Earth orbit on Sunday as the company continues to build out its constellation.
The satellites were launched by a Falcon 9 rocket at 7:49 a.m. local time from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the company said in a statement.
After separation, the rocket’s first stage booster, numbered B1077, returned to Earth and landed on a barge called Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean.
The launch marked the 23rd flight for this first-stage booster, highlighting SpaceX’s strategy of driving down costs by reusing hardware rather than discarding it after a single use.
Last week, SpaceX set a record with the 30th flight of another Falcon 9 first-stage booster, numbered B1067. Other high-flight boosters are in their high-20s.
Though SpaceX continues to demonstrate the reusability of its first-stage boosters, and its payload fairings are often recovered and refurbished, other parts of its rockets remain strictly single-use.
SpaceX once aimed to recover and reuse the Falcon 9 second stage too, but Musk tweeted in 2018 that the idea was quietly dropped by 2018, instead focusing at the time on accelerating its Starship program.
SpaceX’s next-generation Starship system is being designed for full reusability with its Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage intended to return and fly again, according to the company.
Last week marked the first significant show of progress by SpaceX in the reusability of Starship’s Super Heavy booster and second stage. The Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico and the Starship upper stage splashed down in the Indian Ocean. Neither vehicle was recovered for reuse.
Meanwhile, the Dragon capsule used for carrying cargo and crew members to the International Space Station does see reuse but only its main body is flown again. Its heat shield still must be replaced after each mission, and the trunk section is expendable.
The Federal Communications Commission has granted permission for SpaceX to deploy about 12,000 Starlink satellites. In December 2022, regulators approved 7,500 of those for a second-generation constellation, and in 2024, expanded the frequencies allowed for those satellites. Neither later action increased the overall satellite cap.
More than 8,000 Starlink satellites are reported to be operational in orbit.