The current record is 19 times by a Falcon 9 booster.
I'm mostly interested in real reuse rather than elaborate refurbishment like the shuttle program. I'm not sure how to capture that clearly in the conditions though.
/Mqrius/which-booster-will-fly-20-times-fir
/Mqrius/which-booster-will-fly-25-times-fir
There are currently 3 Falcon 9 boosters with 20+ flights, all of which are less than 4 years old. So one of them will probably reach 30 in 2-3 years unless there is some sort of wall of Falcon 9 booster lifespan that we haven't seen yet.
Seems unlikely the Starship steamroller can get going that fast.
Refurbishment time (along with a requirement that 90% or whatever of the object is re-used) is probably a descent proxy for economically practical re-use. Much of the shuttle refurbishment cost was paying an army of people, and if a rocket is being re-flown in a few weeks there’s only so much you’d be able to spend.
Yea I think the conditions are fine for the reason you mention. SS Discovery launched 39 times…over 28 years.
Also, the Starship Booster isn’t a radically different design to Falcon 9. I strongly expect if it launches more frequently it will be because it’s economical, not because they are doing very expensive refurb.