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Which particular piece of hardware has crossed the Karman line most often?

By hardware I mean anything other than organisms.

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    Do you mean the physically same piece of hardware or the same model of something that's been built multiple times? – Dragongeek Dec 04 '19 at 09:08
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    That, obviously, would be one of the Shuttles (less the tiles, of course). – Sergiy Lenzion Dec 04 '19 at 09:26
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    I suppose there could be an aircraft that's done ballistic trajectories to 100 km more than once, but not sure if it could be more times than a Shuttle. How did the X-15 control attitude above the Kármán line? – uhoh Dec 04 '19 at 09:56
  • Related: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/10396/what-objects-have-been-sent-to-space-twice — I still like Jerry Ross’s wristwatch for this. – Russell Borogove Dec 04 '19 at 15:50
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    My guess, which I'm having a bit of trouble backing up with actual data, is that we're looking for something doing some elliptical de-orbiting aerobraking over multiple passes. – Roger Dec 04 '19 at 18:36
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    Any chance a space suit flew more than 39 times? – Philip Tinney Dec 04 '19 at 21:18
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    I'd be very unsurprised if a piece of Soyuz equipment, like the survival box, was retrieved from the landed capsule and reused on next launch enough times to breach the record. – SF. Dec 04 '19 at 22:47
  • @SF. Although it would make practical sense to reuse the survival kit, it seems the real fate of those (at least the gun itself) was a bit different: “At the end of the mission, after landing, the gun is usually presented as a gift to the Soyuz spacecraft commander,” Source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.businessinsider.com.au/this-is-a-triple-barreled-soviet-space-gun-with-an-attached-machete-2015-1/amp&ved=2ahUKEwjB-rGOnp3mAhWRfH0KHdhpA7oQFjANegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw2Ks7b4uauAQmh61vrcKgrd&cf=1 – Sergiy Lenzion Dec 05 '19 at 00:24
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    There were more than 50 KH-8 missions, each with two film return capsules. I wonder if any of the parts from them were re-used? – Jack B Dec 05 '19 at 13:33
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    A tangential question would be if the inclusion of organisms changes the answer in any way. – SE - stop firing the good guys Dec 05 '19 at 17:54
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    @Dragongeek I mean the physically same piece – Everyday Astronaut Dec 05 '19 at 21:20
  • @Hohmannfan feel free to follow up :) I excluded organisms because this question occurred to me while reading about which people visited space most often. As the record for humans is 7 times, and as I read Justin Braun's answer, I hardly doubt the inclusion of organisms to this question would change anything. – Everyday Astronaut Dec 05 '19 at 21:28
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    I think there's also a question of how 'theseus ship' we want to get, certain craft like the space shuttle underwent extensive part changes even though it's still the same ship – Dragongeek Dec 05 '19 at 21:37
  • Is it just me, or does anyone else see Elon Musk reading this question and replying with "Challenge Accepted"? – bta Dec 05 '19 at 23:40

1 Answers1

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The Space Shuttle Discovery has been to orbit a total number of 39 times, more than any other shuttle vehicle (source: Wikipedia). Contrasting that to other candidate objects:

  • Space Shuttles Atlantis, Columbia, Endeavour and Challenger flew 33, 28, 25 and 10 missions, respectively.

  • Spacelab pressurized module LM1 flew a total of 10 times.

  • Falcon 9 first stage B1048 has been used a total of 4 times and has not exceeded the Karman line in any of those flights
  • The X-15-1 flew a total of 81 times, however it never exceeded the Karman line as the highest altitude it ever reached was 267,500 ft. X-15-3 did exceed the Karman line twice.
  • The X-37b has flown a total of 5 times, however a single vehicle has only flown 3 times
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    What about the other Space Shuttles? Those would be obvious candidates. – Diego Sánchez Dec 04 '19 at 17:10
  • They have fewer missions. – Organic Marble Dec 04 '19 at 17:19
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    I still wonder about piece-parts. The SSME that flew the most missions flew ~20 times. But some laptop, swizzle stick, etc...who knows? Hard to track down. – Organic Marble Dec 04 '19 at 17:25
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    X-15 have made two flights above the Karman line, Flight 90 at 105.9 km and Flight 91 at 107.8 km, both by Joseph A. Walker. Others are, however, below, with Flight 62 being at 95.9 km so almost. – Nightrider Dec 04 '19 at 17:47
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    Other things that have been to space multiple times: Westar 6 / AsiaSat 1, which was retrieved by the Shuttle and subsequently relaunched; several pieces of SpaceX hardware have been reflown above the Karman line (one Dragon capsule was reflown, as was one fairing); and if you count humans as objects, Jerry Ross and Franklin Díaz have both been to space 7 times. – Skyler Dec 04 '19 at 18:03
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    @DiegoSánchez you can see a spreadsheet showing the missions of all the orbiters here: https://space.stackexchange.com/a/25415/6944 – Organic Marble Dec 04 '19 at 20:26
  • @DiegoSánchez it's not clear what you mean by "the only one mentioned is Discovery'; the linked evidence shows it is the one with the highest number of flights indeed among the shuttle vehicles. – desertnaut Dec 04 '19 at 21:13
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    I wonder if it could be something mundane like the containers they use to ship supplies (food, etc.) to the ISS? I'd assume they get sent back empty (or possibly with waste materials), since they'd just be wasting the limited space up there, and possibly they'd get reused on future resupply missions. – Darrel Hoffman Dec 04 '19 at 21:48
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    -1I think that by asking "Which particular piece of hardware..." the OP is indeed asking specifically about individual bits, rather than only for entire spacecraft. – uhoh Dec 04 '19 at 22:25
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    @uhoh then, it would be: All the pieces of Discovery hardware that weren't replaced a single time since it's been built (the obvious one I can think of is the internal structural frame). But that might deserve another question. – Sergiy Lenzion Dec 05 '19 at 00:14
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    @LeoS Can that be somehow confirmed that there is indeed no "particular piece of hardware" that was moved from one shuttle to another in order to get it into space more frequently? – uhoh Dec 05 '19 at 00:28
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    If you want to be technically correct on the "replacement parts" certain shuttle tiles flew on all of the flights and were never replaced. – Magic Octopus Urn Dec 05 '19 at 03:42
  • New Shepard has flown 11 times, across three boosters. – Jacob Krall Dec 05 '19 at 04:16
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    @DarrelHoffman Empty containers will go with all the other trash, which is burnt up in the atmosphere - not reused. – Martin Bonner supports Monica Dec 05 '19 at 08:22
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    I checked on SRB segments but they didn't even get Air Force astronaut wings. – Organic Marble Dec 05 '19 at 17:45
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    @uhoh you are right, but this is still a good answer – Everyday Astronaut Dec 05 '19 at 21:23
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    @uhoh, with that narrow interpretation of the question, the technically correct answer would be "The Shuttle Orbiter Discovery's frame, and every piece of hardware mounted to it which hasn't been replaced during the orbiter's lifetime." I think this answer gets that point across well enough, as well as provides supplemental information for anyone with similar questions. – Ghedipunk Dec 05 '19 at 23:17
  • @Ghedipunk I'm thinking about this – uhoh Dec 06 '19 at 00:21
  • @OrganicMarble - Well if you worked for NASA and you don't know, then I think we can rule out there being some intentionally sanctified object that would answer this question. I think the swizzle stick would've 'disappeared' way before 40 w/o there being a paper trail for its provenance, and if there was a trail you would know about it. – Mazura Dec 06 '19 at 02:31
  • @Mazura NASA is(was) vast and I only knew one little corner. – Organic Marble Dec 06 '19 at 02:55
  • I'm pretty sure all, or almost all Falcon first stages actually make it to space, they just might not until after separation. – PearsonArtPhoto Dec 06 '19 at 11:05
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – called2voyage Dec 06 '19 at 14:30
  • More accurate data on New Shepard: the second craft flew five times; the third craft flew five times and is shooting for a sixth tomorrow. – Jacob Krall Dec 10 '19 at 00:04
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    Several SpaceX Dragon capsules have been reused as well, 2 have been flown 3 times. – trapper Dec 10 '19 at 07:41