FALCON 9 BOOSTER FLIES FOR RECORD 36TH TIME

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 first-stage booster for a record 36th time, extending the company's reuse milestone for the workhorse rocket that carries many of its Starlink missions, according to Space.com. The launch took place July 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The Falcon 9 lifted off at 5:25 a.m. Eastern time carrying 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, according to Space.com. The mission used booster 1067, which has now flown more orbital missions than any other Falcon 9 first stage.

After stage separation, the booster returned to Earth and landed on SpaceX's drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean about eight and a half minutes after liftoff, Space.com reported. The rocket's upper stage deployed the Starlink satellites about 63 and a half minutes after launch.

The flight set a SpaceX company record but remains below the all-time reuse mark held by NASA's space shuttle Discovery, which flew 39 missions, according to Space.com. The comparison reflects the different engineering approaches between a reusable spaceplane and a partially reusable launch vehicle, but it places the Falcon 9 booster within range of a major historic reuse benchmark.

The Economic Times reported that a separate Falcon 9 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base had recently brought another booster to its 35th flight, underscoring how routine high-count booster reuse has become inside SpaceX's launch cadence. The company's reusable first stages are designed to land vertically after launch and be refurbished for later missions.

Starlink remains the main driver of that launch cadence. Space.com reported that the July 9 mission was Falcon 9's 80th launch of 2026, with roughly 80% of those missions supporting the Starlink satellite constellation. Space.com also reported that Starlink now has more than 10,700 active satellites, making it the largest satellite network ever built.

The reuse record matters because launch economics depend heavily on how many times a first stage can fly safely. A booster that can perform dozens of orbital-class missions spreads manufacturing cost across more launches, while giving SpaceX more hardware availability for commercial satellites, government payloads and internal Starlink deployments.

The immediate questions are whether booster 1067 flies again, whether Falcon 9 reaches or passes Discovery's 39-flight reuse mark, and whether high-count boosters continue to perform without forcing longer refurbishment timelines. For now, the 36th flight gives SpaceX another data point in its push to make orbital launch vehicles operate more like reusable transportation systems than single-use rockets.

Fact-check date: 11 July 2026
Article type: News
Sources: Space.com, Economic Times