SpaceX Plans to Reuse a Rocket For the First Time This Fall
SpaceX is planning to relaunch one of the rockets it has landed in September or October, according to a tweet from Elon Musk yesterday evening. This would be the first rocket reused by the Hawthorne-based aerospace manufacturer.
SpaceX has successfully landed four rockets, one on the ground and three more on autonomous floating barges. Recovering rockets after launch and restoring them to carry payloads into space multiple times would be a huge cost saver, cutting launch expenses by as much as 30 percent.
The fact that it will be the Falcon 9's second flight hasn't deterred satellite manufacturers from wanting to launch their payloads on the reused rocket. SpaceX has already received interest from a number of customers, according to the Los Angeles Times, and CTO Martin Halliwell of SES, a Luxembourg-based satellite operator, told Spaceflight Now that he wants the company to be "the first satellite operator that would use the same rocket twice."
When the Falcon 9 flies this fall, the age of reusable rockets will truly begin.
