Space Center Houston now has a twice-flown Falcon 9 on display

Enlarge / The business end of Falcon 9 serial B1035, now on permanent static display at Space Center Houston. (credit: Lee Hutchinson)

HOUSTON-Space Center Houston took the wraps off of its newest exhibit on Thursday morning: a Block 3 Falcon 9 booster, serial number B1035. It is only the second Falcon 9 on permanent public display, with the other being outside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

The process of getting B1035 from Hawthorne to Houston has been something of a long one, but the booster finally arrived at Space Center Houston on the evening of March 3.

B1035 was used on two ISS commercial resupply missions; it first flew as CRS-11 in June 2017 and again as CRS-13 in December of the same year. The vehicle is streaked with authentic soot from its launches, and SCH Exhibits Director Paul Spana explained to Ars that the grime was purposefully left in place so that the public could get an accurate perception of the booster as it looked as an actual working piece of technology that went to space-twice.

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