SpaceX is preparing is preparing its 10th flight of the year and its third launch in just nine days. It already has a backlog of more than 70 missions, which is worth more than US$10 billion (AU$13 billion approx).

The company is reportedly planning the expansion of its rocket refurbishing facilities in Florida. It wants to store its reusable rocket boosters to increase the pace of launches. According to documents filed with authorities, the Elon Musk-owned rocket company has proposed building a 6,245 square metre hangar, south of its Cape Canaveral launch sites. This hangar will be used to prepare the recovered Falcon boosters for re-flight and storage.

The old Spacehab building will be used for offices, rocket storage and housing equipment at the dock where SpaceX’s floating landing pad returns from sea. Work is currently dispersed at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Centre.

The company already operates two sites in Florida, though one is current not functional after the September 2016 mishap. The accident heavily damaged the launchpad, a US$62 million (AU$82 million approx) rocket and also a US$200 million (AU$263 million) communications satellite.

California-based SpaceX is building a launch site near Brownsville, Texas. It also has a launch site at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California plus launch pads at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, reports Deccan Chronicle.

SpaceX successfully landed its first Falcon 9 rocket in December 2015, and since then has successfully returned boosters 12 more times on drone barges, either on a landing pad on the ground or in the ocean. Iridium’s 70+ satellite constellation is expected to be complete by mid-2018.

CEO Matt Desch said that he has no problem accepting refurbished boosters if they help speed up the deployment of the satellites. SpaceX will be launching the Falcon Heavy for the first time, which is an extensively boosted derivative rocket. The company’s initial test flight of a manned capsule will soon take place. If successful, it will transport American astronauts routinely to the International Space Station by the end of this decade. SpaceX is the only company that has “recovered, refurbished and then re-flown an orbital class rocket.”

Stay tuned on IBT AU for more updates on the SpaceX missions. [In Case You Missed: SpaceX, Falcon 9, rocket re-use: Elon Musk creates buzz on Twitter, company to launch more missions than in 2016]

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