SpaceX Breaks Records, Delivers Raptor 2
Well, it seems all that work on infrastructure has started paying off for SpaceX, as the commercial rocket company broke its old reusability record by 6 days and 2 hours.
On Friday, April the 29th, Falcon 9 booster B1062 lifted off the Launch Complex 40 pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to deliver a batch of 53 Starlink satellites - just 21 days and 6 hours after an identical launch.
The previous record was held by Falcon 9 Booster B1060 when - back in 2021 - the rocket delivered a Turkish comms satellite and some Starlinks only 27 days and 4 hours apart.
SpaceX reported that the refurbishing of B1062 actually took just 9 days, which indicates that actual turnaround can be much shorter once procedures and inspection processes get streamlined.
Space X holds the top 19 records for orbital rocket turnarounds. The next closest competitor - Blue Origin’s Shepard booster, which isn’t even orbital - takes about 59 days to get ready for a new launch - which still doesn’t beat NASA’s old record for the Space Shuttle, which took about 54 days back in its prime - and is the 20th record-holder for fastest orbital turnaround.
And that’s not the only thing SpaceX is developing at breakneck speed.
Shipments of the new Raptor 2 engine have begun pouring through the gates of Starbase, as testing procedures have been iterated and tightened up over the last couple of months. Musk confirmed in late April that at least 18 of the new engines had been delivered.
The reason is mostly behind the Raptor 2’s design guidelines to be simpler, more compact and more efficient than its predecessor; achieving this by redesigning every major component, even reducing mechanical joints and designing the plumbing to be more or less one-piece (which removes the need for ever-failing seals). The Raptor 2 does all this and boosts maximum thrust by 25%.
This fast turnaround for the Falcon 9, and the increase in production of those Raptor 2s - pivotal for Super Heavy orbital launches - is very good news for SpaceX. It can only make upcoming missions to orbit safer and more cost-effective.