by The first commercial US rocket to launch astronauts into orbit has ended after it was destroyed during its latest post-flight recovery.
Referred to by SpaceX by its serial number, B1058, the Falcon 9 first stage was being transported back to shore after its record-setting 19th flight when “the booster overshot” due to high winds and waves,” the company. reported on Xthe social network formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday (December 25).
Two days earlier, the stage helped launch 23 of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites before they managed to collide with the company’s droneship “Just Read the Instructions”, which was located in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida.
Photos shared online of the returned ship showed that only the lower part of B1058 remained, with three of its four landing legs still in use and all nine of its Merlin engines still intact.
“We are planning to salvage the engines and perform life-leader inspections on the remaining hardware. There is still a lot of value in this booster. We will not let it go to waste,” wrote Jon Edwards, SpaceX vice president on launch Falcon vehicles, on X on Tuesday (December 26).
Related: SpaceX: Facts about Elon Musk’s private space flight company
The upper part of B1058 was lost which was a unique story, telling that it was used to launch the first astronauts for NASA. The booster was the only stage in the SpaceX fleet to be emblazoned with the space agency’s “worm” logo.
On May 30, 2020, B1058 took off for the first time on SpaceX’s Demo-2 (DM-2) mission carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the company’s Crew Dragon capsule “Endeavour.” The two-month long mission to the International Space Station was the first by American astronauts from the United States since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011.
Since that flight, B1058 has been used in the launch of SpaceX’s 21st cargo delivery to the space station (CRS-21), the launch of a dedicated satellite for South Korea (ANASIS-II), two shared transit satellite launches (Transporter-1 and Transporter – 3) and 14 Starlink missions. The stage, like the other “Block 5” boosters in the SpaceX fleet, was certified for 20 launches.
“This single reusable rocket booster launched two astronauts and more than 860 satellites into orbit, totaling 260+ metric tons, in approximately 3.5 years,” SpaceX posted on X.
Falcon 9’s next stages may have survived rough sea conditions thanks to improvements made to their landing legs.
“We came up with self-leveling legs that instantly balance leg loads on landing after a sharp tippy boost two years ago at Christmas,” wrote Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launches, on X. “The fleet is mostly clothed, but 1058 was not, because of its age. It met its fate when it hit strong winds and waves that caused the failure of OG that was partially secured. [“octograbber” hold-down clamp] less than 100 miles [160 kilometers] out of town.”
“One thing is for sure we will make lemonade out of lemons and learn as much as possible from the historic 1058 on our path to operations like aircraft,” he wrote.
With the loss of 1058, SpaceX is believed to still have 16 active Falcon 9 first stages built and three awaiting their first use.
Fans of the company reacted to the news of the 1058’s destruction with regret that it had not entered the Smithsonian or another museum for preservation.
So far, SpaceX has retired four of its previously flown Falcon 9 stages for public display. B1019, the first to return to its launch site for a successful landing, is today outside the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. B1035, which launched two Dragon cargo missions to the International Space Station, is now displayed on its side at Space Center Houston in Texas.
B1023, which helped launch Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster into space as a side booster on the first Falcon Heavy rocket launch, is now part of the “Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex” attraction at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. And B1021, the first booster to fly again and the first to land on a droneship, was installed outside Dish Network’s headquarters in Littleton, Colorado.
Continue collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collect SPACE. Copyright 2023 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
