Tag: from Florida

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Payload for AST SpaceMobile, Lands Booster

SPACE reports, “AST SpaceMobile’s first five commercial satellites have reached orbit. The huge spacecraft, called BlueBirds, lifted off today (Sept. 12) at 4:52 a.m. EDT (0852 GMT) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. … Each BlueBird sports a communications antenna that covers 693 square feet (64 square meters) when unfolded — the largest such array ever deployed by a commercial spacecraft.”
Full Story (SPACE)

 

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SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn crew on first private spacewalk mission (Launch at 00:33 second mark)
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Polaris Dawn Mission from Florida

The New York Times reports, “At 5:23 a.m. Eastern time, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Less than 15 minutes later, the crew of four astronauts inside the Crew Dragon capsule — that will be their home for the next five days — were in orbit. The Polaris Dawn mission will mark some milestones for private spaceflight — the first spacewalk conducted by nonprofessional astronauts, and the farthest journey from Earth by anyone since NASA’s moon landings more than 50 years ago.”
Full Story (New York Times – Subscription Publication)

 

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SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn crew on first private spacewalk mission (Launch at 00:33 second mark)
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)

SpaceX Launches 23 Starlink Satellites

SPACE reported, “SpaceX launched 23 more of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Sunday (Jan. 7).” As planned, “the Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff,” touching down on a drone ship off the coast of Florida. “The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit… .”
Full Story (SPACE)

SpaceX Launch Marks a Tie of 2022’s Record Number of Launches

Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that a SpaceX launch “from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday night marked the Space Coast’s 57th launch of the year equaling the record total seen in 2022.” A Falcon 9 with 22 SpaceX Starlink internet satellites “lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:36 p.m.” This was the first-stage booster’s 16th flight “with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.” For SpaceX it “was its 53rd mission from either Canaveral or Kennedy Space Center this year while United Launch Alliance has flown three times and Relativity Space has flown once.” SpaceX is the “lone launch provider this year from KSC having flown 11 times while ULA, SpaceX and Relativity combined for 46 launches from Canaveral.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

 

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SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, 17 October 2023
(Spaceflight Now; YouTube)

SpaceX Launches Two Missions in One Day

Orlando (FL) Sentinel reported that after abiding by NASA’s request “to give its Psyche mission on a Falcon Heavy launch its full attention this week, SpaceX lined up and knocked out a Falcon 9 launch just hours later on Friday.” The day “began with Falcon Heavy making its eighth ever flight lifting off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A cutting through haze and clouds at 10:19 a.m. to successfully bring to space NASA’s $700 million probe that had a six-year flight ahead of it for a rendezvous with a metal-rich asteroid also named Psyche.” Sandwiched in between Falcon Heavy’s launch pad “and its booster landing zones was the Falcon 9 rocket on Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 that had been holding off launch with its Starlink satellite payload since weather forced it to stand down last Sunday.” But with Psyche safely in space, SpaceX “was ready to go and weather stayed green for it to launch that Falcon 9 eight hours and 42 minutes later carrying another 22 Starlink internet satellites into space.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

 

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SpaceX Starlink 113 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing, 13 October 2023
(SciNews; YouTube)

SpaceX Launches 21 More Starlink Satellites from California

SPACE reports that early Monday morning, SpaceX launched 21 more of its Starlink broadband satellites “atop a Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.” Liftoff occurred at 3:23 a.m. ET, which was “streamed live via SpaceX’s account on X (formerly known as Twitter).”  Eight and half minutes after launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage made a successful “vertical landing at sea on the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.”  Just over an hour after launch, the Falcon 9’s upper stage “deployed the 21 Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit.”
Full Story (SPACE)

 

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SpaceX Starlink 112 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing, 9 October 2023
(SciNews; YouTube)

SpaceX Launches 22 More Starlink Satellites

SPACE reports that SpaceX “launched 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit early this morning (Oct. 5), on the company’s 70th orbital mission of the year.” The Starlink spacecraft “lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 1:36 a.m. EDT (0536 GMT).” The rocket had originally “been targeted to launch on Wednesday at 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 GMT on Oct. 5), but was delayed several hours by poor weather conditions.” As to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage “returned to Earth for a vertical landing at sea on the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions about 8.5 minutes after launch.” It was the eighth “liftoff and landing for this Falcon 9 first stage, according to a SpaceX mission description.” This morning’s flight “was the 70th orbital mission for SpaceX in 2023. The majority of those launches have been dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 4,800 operational satellites.”
Full Story (SPACE)

 

 

 

 

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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral with Starlink internet satellites
(Spaceflight Now; YouTube)

SpaceX Launches 69th Orbital Flight of 2023 from Florida

Orlando Sentinel reported that a SpaceX Falcon 9 “took off from the 39th time from Cape Canaveral this year, marking the 49th SpaceX flight from the Space Coast and 69th orbital mission among all of its launch sites.” The rocket “lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10 p.m. after poor weather conditions delayed earlier attempts.” The first-stage booster “made its 10th flight once again making a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.” SpaceX has “flown all but three of the Space Coast’s 52 missions this year, with Relativity Space adding one and United Launch Alliance managing two more.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

 

Video

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Starlink 6-19 Mission
(NASA Spaceflight; YouTube)