SpaceX launches satellite with booster that is reused more often on Thursday

SpaceX has announced that it will launch the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 on Thursday with a new, advanced version of the Falcon 9 rocket. It is a so-called block 5 booster, which will be reused much more often compared to the current boosters.

On May 10, the Bangladeshi satellite will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the baptism of fire for the block 5. A few days ago already tested the booster, where only the engines are ignited. SpaceX then announced that the booster passed the test and that it took several days to analyze the data. That apparently posed no problems, as Elon Musk’s company has set the launch date on Thursday.

The big difference between block 5 boosters and versions that are still in use today is that the new booster will be reused for launches much more often. The first stages of Falcon 9 rockets have been captured and reused many times in recent times, but these individual boosters have never experienced more than two launches in total. The block 5 booster should be able to complete ten launches and maybe even a hundred if certain upgrades are made. This new booster will therefore make a significant contribution to making the SpaceX launches cheaper.

A number of improvements have been made to this new version to enable frequent reuse of the new boosters. For example, the legs of the booster, which are used for vertical landings, can be folded in order to store the part faster. Furthermore, a new flight control system has been added, which means that less fuel is needed for the landings. A reusable heat shield is also added for the engines, among other things, and a protective layer is added, so that the booster is more resistant to the heat during reentry into the atmosphere. The engines of the block 5 booster have about 8 percent more power. Visually, little has changed, except that the connector connecting the two rocket stages at block 5 is black.