A Falcon 9 first stage broke its own reusability record on July 9, 2026, becoming the first booster in SpaceX's fleet to complete 36 flights. Booster B1067 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:25 a.m. EDT. It carried  a stack of Starlink satellites on the Starlink 10-42 mission.

Roughly eight minutes after liftoff, B1067 executed a precision landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The touchdown marked the 160th landing for that particular vessel and the 635th successful Falcon 9 booster landing overall. A proof of how routine propulsive recovery has become for SpaceX's workhorse rocket.

B1067 has been climbing toward this milestone for years. The booster debuted in June 2021 on CRS-22, a Dragon cargo resupply run to the International Space Station. After that, it went on to carry two NASA crew rotations: Crew-3 in November 2021 and Crew-4 in April 2022. Since then it has flown more than two dozen Starlink deployment missions. Steadily pulling ahead of the rest of the fleet. 

Falcon 9's Block 5 boosters were originally certified for 10 flights each, a target SpaceX has since revised upward repeatedly. Inspection data showed the vehicles are holding up far better than expected. B1067's 36-flight count is now more than three and a half times that original baseline. It should deliver valuable data on how far the airframe and Merlin engines can be pushed before retirement or expendable use becomes the safer call.