SpaceX to Use First Refurbished Falcon 9 Booster for National Security Mission Written 16 June 2021
Falcon 9 first stage on an ASDS barge after successful landing at sea. | Credit: SpaceX; Wikipedia; CC0
Space News reports that on Thursday, SpaceX is scheduled to launch a GPS 3 satellite atop its Falcon 9 rocket. The launch will mark the “first national security space mission to use a refurbished Falcon 9 booster.” The US Space Force “initially ordered an expendable rocket but agreed to the switch with a caveat: the reused booster had to be the one that flew another GPS 3 satellite to orbit last November.” Walter Lauderdale, deputy mission director of the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Launch Enterprise, “told reporters June 14 that this requirement is just for this mission as the military gets more comfortable with reusability.”
Full Story (Space News)