This rocket has changed space, so much can already be said. The "Falcon 9" of the US company SpaceX has now been launched more than 60 times. And in about half of the cases, the first stage of the aircraft has gently returned to Earth. She has either landed on a ship or on a concrete landing site.

More than a dozen times, the company then sent such an already used rocket back into space. Because that is their promise: The reusability of the technology, the price of flights into space in the future will fall drastically.

SpaceX is now aiming for another milestone on a Vandenberg Air Force Base launch in California scheduled for Wednesday evening's Central European Time. For the first time, a rocket that has flown twice before will be deployed for its third flight within a year. And without, that major repairs were made to the aircraft. However, the launch had recently been postponed by a week and a half because of a previous launch of another "Falcon 9" problem with a first-stage engine.

A single rocket should come to 100 missions

The rocket intended for launch on Wednesday carries the internal serial number B1046 and belongs to the latest version ("Block 5"). In May, she put a communication satellite for Bangladesh into orbit, then in August one for Indonesia.

For the future, SpaceX has set much more ambitious targets for reusability: Ten times in a row, a "Falcon 9" stage is supposed to fly once, before it comes back into the hangar for repair and repair. Overall, it should be possible even 100 starts per rocket.

This will take a while. Now, for the first time the third use in series. At the top of the rocket this time is an eclectic mix of more than 60 larger, but especially smaller satellites from 17 different countries from Australia to Thailand.

Responsible for this is the US company Spaceflight Industries from Seattle. This has completely bought the "Falcon 9" from SpaceX and then marketed them as a kind of collective taxi into space to customers around the world who could not afford their own rocket. "Smallsat Express" is the name of the mission.

Tomato growing in the flying greenhouse

Because every user only pays a comparatively small percentage of the startup costs, all at once becomes affordable for many users. Numerous universities, in Germany from Berlin and Munich, have mini-satellites for the education of their students on board.

But it also happens that in addition to research missions such as the flying greenhouse "Eu: Cropis" developed by German scientists, in which tomatoes are supposed to grow under reduced gravitation, miniature missiles like "Elysium Star 2" are also aboard the rocket. This is a small cube containing parts of the ashes of more than 100 deceased people. After about two years in orbit, he should burn up in the atmosphere - and delight the bereaved as a shooting star.

Or the "Enoch" satellite, which the Los Angeles County Museum of Art sends into space. According to the artist responsible for the project, Tavares Strachan says that it contains the "soul" of the first African-American astronaut candidate Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. He died in an air accident in 1967 - before he was able to launch into space.

Artist Strachan wants to commemorate his now with a so-called Kanope. Thus, in ancient Egypt, the vessels were called, in which the internal organs of mummified were buried. The gilded vessel, now sent to space in memory of Lawrence, does not contain any of its remains. But it shows a small bust of him after all - and was officially declared the "container of the soul" of the deceased in a Shint shrine in Japan.

Discussions about flying reflector

Somewhat strange is the "Orbital Reflector" , which another artist named Trevor Paglen wants to send along with the rocket. This satellite should do nothing but reflect as much sunlight as possible - and annoying astronomers for this very reason. They fear, as in the case of the "Humanity Star", a sort of flying disco ball shot by New Zealand space manager Peter Beck earlier this year, the accuracy of their measurements.

The fact that the "Falcon 9" brings a flying grocery store into space, by the way, should rather remain an exception. That's what Spaceflight Industries boss Curt Blake clarified shortly before the start. It would be too complicated and exhausting to get the builders of 60 satellites simultaneously to get the technology and paperwork done on time.

Therefore, it is not unlikely that the company set for their business in the future on smaller rockets. SpaceX, on the other hand, tends to be more interested in larger vehicles for space flight. Dear sooner than later, you want to put the extremely powerful "BFR" into service - which should make flights to Mars possible. There company boss Elon Musk wants to found a human colony.

Before that, the workhorse "Falcon 9" still has to complete numerous missions - and earn good money. For the coming year, more than 20 launches are already planned, and in addition, as soon as all safety tests have been completed, the company wants to bring astronauts to the International Space Station.

Incidentally, the Wednesday missile will land on a remote-controlled ship off the coast of California after the flight has been completed. And then soon be ready for their next assignment.