Tag: Space Launch Complex 40

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 Makes Space Coast’s 66th Launch of the Year

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports, “SpaceX chalked up another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to mark the Space Coast’s 66th launch of the year.” A Falcon 9 carrying “23 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:20 p.m. Monday.” The booster launched “for the 17th time, the third time SpaceX has flown one of its boosters 17 times, although one has flown 18 missions.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

 

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SpaceX Falcon 9 launches 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral
(Spaceflight Now; YouTube)

SpaceX Launches Starlink Mission

Florida Today reports that with SpaceX’s newly “installed crew access arm for use by future astronauts stationed alongside on a support tower, a Falcon 9 rocket blazed into the post-midnight darkness Wednesday carrying another payload of 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.” The launch “lit up the Space Coast sky at 12:05 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.” Of note, SpaceX’s Starlink 6-27 mission “marked the 61st orbital launch from the Space Force installation and nearby Kennedy Space Center this year, extending the ongoing annual record.”
Full Story (Florida Today)

 

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SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Starlink 6-27
(NASASpaceflight; YouTube)

SpaceX Marks Space Coast Record with 60th Launch this Year

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reported another Space Coast night launch “Friday marked the 60th liftoff from the Space Coast for the year, this time with a booster flying for a record 18th time.” A Falcon 9 carrying “another 23 of Elon Musk’s company’s Starlink satellites took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:37 p.m.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)

 

Video

SpaceX Starlink 119 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing, 4 November 2023
(SciNews; YouTube)