SpaceX knocks out 3 launches from 3 pads in less than 28 hours

SpaceX knocks out 3 launches from 3 pads in less than 28 hours

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With the OK to fly from the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX lined up three Falcon 9 rockets this weekend from three launch pads on two coasts and got back to work.

First early Saturday, it managed the first of what were all Starlink missions from Kennedy Space Center. It followed that less than 24 hours later with a launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and finished up less than four hours later with a launch from California.

The Space Coast launch early Sunday came from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 with a Falcon 9 carrying 23 more Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit lifting off at 1:09 a.m.

The first-stage booster was making its 14th flight to space making another recovery landing, this time downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

The flight marked a milestone for the company, 300th time SpaceX had reused a booster for launch.

SpaceX then shifted gears to California with a Falcon 9 liftoff off with 21 Starlink satellites at 5:22 a.m. EDT from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Its booster made its 17th trip to space landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.

For SpaceX, the three launches brought its 2024 total among the three launch pads to 73. The three rockets at its three pads were primed since Falcon 9 had been grounded for more than two weeks by the FAA after a mishap on a Falcon 9 launch caused a failure in its upper stage during a launch from California. The FAA cleared SpaceX to return to flight late Thursday, and it had its first rocket up less than two days later.

For the Space Coast, the early Saturday and Sunday launches brought the total missions to 52 for the year, with all but three coming from SpaceX.

The other three have been from United Launch Alliance, which has its fourth launch planned for Tuesday morning with an Atlas V targeting liftoff during a four-hour window from 6:45-9:45 a.m. from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41. It’s flying the USSF-51 mission for the Space Force.

SpaceX then has a busy lineup for August with another Starlink mission from KSC as early as Aug. 2 and a resupply mission to the International Space Station flying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft from Canaveral as early as Aug. 3.

It also has two human spaceflights lined up, both of which could fly in August.

The Crew-9 rotational mission with three NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut is aiming for liftoff as early as Aug. 18 in the Crew Dragon Freedom headed for the ISS while billionaire Jared Issacman and three passengers are ready to launch in the Crew Dragon Resilience on the Polaris Dawn mission.

 

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