SpaceX successfully re-launches Falcon 9; may go into space for the third time

SpaceX in Florida has successfully re-launched its Block 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station establishing the Indonesian Merah Putih satellite in the orbit just over after 30 minutes. After Falcon 9 lands successfully, it may go into space for the third time. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster also re-landed successfully on “Of Course I Still Love” one of the company’s drone ships parked in Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic.  

Falcon F9 has now become the 28th booster that SpaceX has recovered as it has reused one of its new powerful Block 5 boosters for the first time.

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Earlier, SpaceX used Falcon 9 in May 2018 to send up a communications satellite for Bangladesh from Florida. Since then the SpaceX is making it ready for the flight again. 

“We are going to be very rigorous in taking this rocket apart and confirming our design assumptions to be confident that it is indeed able to be reused without being taken apart,” Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, had said during a conference call with reporters.

Musk had said the Block 5’s first stage booster is designed to fly 10 times “with no scheduled refurbishment” and with “moderate scheduled maintenance,” Block 5 first stages could be capable of 100 missions.

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He had explained SpaceX’s long-term mission of reducing the cost of space transportation. SpaceX aims in launching Falcon 9 rocket, recover the booster and re-launch it within 24 hours.