Renewal on production.…The production of 1,000 Merlin 1D engines is a notable milestone for any rocket engine, but it is important to note that the Merlin 1D is reusable. The Merlin 1D has logged more than 6,000 powered flights with 1,000 units. “With the reusability of Falcon, the recovery of these engines has enabled continued improvements in reliability, making Merlin one of the most reliable rocket engines ever manufactured,” SpaceX wrote in X. Another highly reliable, but single-use, rocket engine with similar thrust is Russia’s RD-107/108. Five of them have powered every variant of the Russian R-7 rocket family since the 1950s, a legacy now continued by the Soyuz launch vehicle. With more than 2,000 flights of Soyuz and its likes, that is equivalent to more than 10,000 RD-107 and 108 engines produced at a plant in Samara, Russia.
SpaceX launches rare GEO mission. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Sunday is carrying a multi-ton radio broadcast satellite for SiriusXM to replace two aging satellites in geostationary Earth orbit. Spaceflight reports now. The SXM-11 satellite is a behemoth of spacecraft, with a launch mass of approximately 7 metric tons (15,000 pounds). The satellite is intended for a position above the equator at an altitude of more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers), where its speed will match the Earth’s rotation to provide continuous radio broadcast coverage over the United States.
still in business…Of SpaceX’s 78 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches this year, this was only the third with a payload aimed at geostationary orbit, once the preferred destination for nearly all commercial communications satellites. Today, the trend is decidedly leaning towards low Earth orbit with megaconstellations like Starlink. But SiriusXM is still in business, as is the maker of the SXM-11 satellite: Lanteris Space Systems, a subsidiary of Texas-based Intuitive Machines. The company, formerly called Maxar, was acquired by Intuitive Machines in January 2026 for about $800 million.
