SpaceX is keeping its assembly line approach to launching rockets alive and strong with missions from both Cape Canaveral and California less than 24 hours since sending up four humans to space from Kennedy Space Center.

On the Space Coast, a Falcon 9 rocket with 23 of the Starlink internet satellites is set to lift off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:56 p.m. with backup options during a four-hour window that runs through 10:54 p.m. More backups are available on Tuesday during a four-hour window that opens at 6:28 p.m.

Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts an 80% chance for good conditions, which decreases to 55% in the event of a delay to Tuesday.

The first-stage booster for the flight is flying for the 13th time, and SpaceX aims to recover it with a landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

SpaceX Crew-8 launches after tense discovery of crack on hatch seal

This would be the 15th launch from the Space Coast in 2024, with all but one coming from SpaceX.

It launched the Crew-8 mission from KSC with a 10:53 p.m. liftoff Sunday night from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A, the second human spaceflight of the year for SpaceX following January’s Axiom Space Ax-3 mission.

It also has a California launch slated for less than two hours before Canaveral’s Starlink mission. The west coast flight looks to send up the Transporter-10 mission from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base aiming for a 5:05 p.m. EST liftoff. The mission is the 10th dedicated rideshare mission for SpaceX carrying 53 payloads for a variety of customers.

Across both Florida and California launch pads, SpaceX will have managed 22 launches in 64 days, better than one launch every three days, if it manages both the Canaveral and Vandenberg liftoffs during a year that Elon Musk said the company could see as many as 150.

Starship completed its rehearsal for launch, loading more than 10 million pounds of propellant on Starship and Super Heavy and taking the flight-like countdown to T-10 seconds pic.twitter.com/1px7nyzhqQ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 4, 2024

It’s also gearing up to send up the third test flight of its Starship and Super Heavy from its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

“Starship Flight 3 preparing for launch,” Musk posted on Twitter after SpaceX spent Sunday evening running through a wet dress rehearsal filling the rocket with 10 million pounds of propellant.

FAA closes investigation into SpaceX Starship’s double-explosion 2nd flight

 

SpaceX is awaiting the OK from the Federal Aviation Administration before it can set up a target launch date for the massive rocket.

The first two test flights in 2023 ended explosively, but the FAA last month cleared the path for the third test flight to move forward by closing the latest launch mishap investigation.

Starship is the company’s replacement rocket for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy fleet, one that would be completely reusable with both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage capable of vertical recovery landings.