SpaceX knocked out yet another Falcon 9 launch overnight but is prepping for liftoff of its powerhouse Falcon Heavy from the Space Coast as early as Sunday.

A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:07 a.m. carrying another 23 Starlink satellites to orbit.

The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed downrange in the Atlantic.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/iBETMTpR7m

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 7, 2023

This was the 68th launch from the Space Coast in 2023 with all but four launches coming from SpaceX.

Launch No. 69 is set to be a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A on the USSF-52 mission for the Space Force on Sunday during a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 p.m.

This marks a busy year for Falcon Heavy flying for only the ninth time ever, but five times alone in 2023 including October’s mission to send up NASA’s Psyche probe.

It’s essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together that can produce 5.1 million pounds of thrust on liftoff, more than twice the power of United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy.

This will be the rocket’s third flight for the Space Force, this time carrying the uncrewed X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which looks like a mini space shuttle, on its seventh trip to space. That spacecraft has on past missions spent years orbiting the Earth. Its last flight, which returned to land at KSC last year, had spent 908 days in orbit.

The side boosters for this launch will be flying for the fifth time, previously used on the Psyche mission, two Space Force missions and one commercial flight. SpaceX has plans for another double land landing at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which will bring sonic booms across the Space Coast and parts of Central Florida.

90th flight of 2023 https://t.co/vaVe1QW8n3

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2023

SpaceX’s busy year has included 64 launches from Florida and 26 from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base for a total of 90 successful orbital missions.

“SpaceX is tracking to launch over 80% of all Earth payload to orbit this year,” Musk wrote on X.

It also attempted two orbital flights of its Starship and Super Heavy integrated rocket from Texas.