SpaceX’s most experienced Falcon 9 rocket booster, has been damaged. The booster had flown 19 times and carried the first astronauts on a commercial spacecraft. However, it has now met an unfortunate end on its way back to port after its final mission.
The Falcon 9 booster, designated B1068, had successfully launched 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on December 23, 2023, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It then landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean, marking its 19th and final flight.
However, during the transport back to shore, “the booster tipped over on the droneship due to high winds and waves,” causing significant damage to the rocket. SpaceX said that they are planning to salvage the engines and inspect the remaining hardware, as the booster still has some value.
SpaceX took to the microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to share this news:
B1068 was the first Falcon 9 booster to launch astronauts on the historic Demo-2 mission in May 2020, which restored the U.S. capability to send humans to the International Space Station (ISS) from American soil. The booster still had the NASA “worm” logo on its side, a symbol of its historic achievement.
The booster also launched more than 860 satellites in its three-and-a-half-year career. This totals over 260 metric tons. It was the leader of SpaceX’s reusable rocket fleet, which has reduced the cost of space access and enabled more frequent launches.
SpaceX said that “newer Falcon boosters have upgraded landing legs that can self-level and mitigate this type of issue.” The company has three other 17-times-flown boosters in active service, ready to continue breaking records in 2024.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket that can deliver payloads and people to orbit and beyond. It is the first orbital class rocket in the world that so reusable. This means that the most expensive parts of the rocket can be flown again and again. The rocket can also carry the Dragon spacecraft, which has transported 42 people to space across 11 missions so far.
SpaceX is a private company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also leads Tesla and Neuralink. SpaceX’s vision is to make life multiplanetary, by colonizing Mars and other worlds. The company is developing a new rocket called Starship, which is expected to be fully reusable and capable of carrying 100 people or more to the Moon and Mars.
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