The SpaceX drone ship just read the instructions (JRTI) meets booster B1049.5 for milestones for the booster and the drone ship.

JRTI was the barge that was deployed on the west coast for the SpaceX booster recoveries and since the decline of launch operations from Vanderburg have halted almost completely. The drone ship was put to work here on the space coast, to help with the Aerospace companies cadence to launch their Starlink satellites and provide internet services to the world, including remote areas. JRTI hit the milestone on 6/4/20 when B1049.4 landed successfully graduating the booster to the .5 status.

The success of B1049 started with its debut launch on 9/10/18 with the Telstar 18V/Apstar-5C mission.

The next launch would come 4 months later with the launch of Iridium NEXT -8 satelitte mission.

4 months later we got to witness yet another launch of this booster with the Starlink 0.9 mission (debut constellation launch).

We wouldn’t see this booster fly again until the Starlink -2 mission that came 7 months later.

The 5th launch (so far) came just days ago with the Starlink-7 launch.

SpaceX continues to break boundaries and set goals for the company that most would say are unrealistic and with the completion of Starship, we’ll soon see a new era in space flight.