Falcon 9 Milestones Vindicate SpaceX’s ‘Dumb’ Approach to Reuse

SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink V1.0-L24 Launch on April 28, 2021. Long exposure of the L24 launch from Cape Canaveral as viewed from Marina Park in Titusville, Florida.Daniel Hull/ Getty Images

As SpaceX's Starship vehicle gathered all of the attention this week, the company's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket continued to hit some impressive milestones.

Both occurred during relatively anonymous launches of the company's Starlink satellites but are nonetheless notable because they underscore the value of first-stage reuse, which SpaceX has pioneered over the past decade.

The first milestone occurred on Wednesday morning with the launch of the Starlink 10-56 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first stage that launched these satellites, Booster 1096, was ...