SpaceX has once again broken its own record for reusing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket. It has successfully returned from its 32nd flight into space.
The record was set by the stage with the side number B1067. Its first flight into space took place in June 2021. B1067 mainly launched batches of Starlink satellites into space, but it also has two manned missions to its credit — the Crew-3 flight in November 2021 and Crew-4 in April 2022. On average, the stage flies into space once every 52 days.
The 32nd flight of B1067 took place on December 8. It proceeded according to the standard scenario. The stage completed its section, then separated from the rocket and made a successful landing on an autonomous barge in the Atlantic Ocean. It will soon be delivered to the SpaceX base, where it will be inspected and prepared for a new launch. As for the payload, consisting of another batch of 29 Starlink satellites, it has been placed into the required orbit.
The completed mission marked the 158th launch of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2025 and the 510th reuse of its first stage since 2017. It is worth noting that the first stages of the Falcon 9 (in the Block 5 modification) were originally certified for ten flights. Since then, SpaceX has raised the bar several times—first to fifteen, then to twenty missions. Now the company is aiming to reach forty flights.
You can read about how Falcon 9 changed global space exploration forever in our article.
