- Updates: SpaceX boosted another Falcon 9 Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Saturday Florida Today
- Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch 22 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
- SpaceX launches Starlink batch in 2nd launch of day following Crew-7 VideoFromSpace
- SpaceX delays Starlink launch to Saturday night following Crew-7’s early morning liftoff News 13 Orlando
- LIVE: Spacex Falcon 9 Rocket Launches Another Batch Of 2nd-Gen Starlink V2 Mini Internet Satellites India Today
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Tag Archives: Canaveral
SpaceX launches 56 more Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now
“Our action will allow SpaceX to begin deployment of Gen2 Starlink, which will bring next generation satellite broadband to Americans nationwide, including those living and working in areas traditionally unserved or underserved by terrestrial systems,” the FCC wrote in its Dec. 1 order partially approving the Starlink Gen2 constellation. “Our action also will enable worldwide satellite broadband service, helping to close the digital divide on a global scale.
“At the same time, this limited grant and associated conditions will protect other satellite and terrestrial operators from harmful interference and maintain a safe space environment, promoting competition and protecting spectrum and orbital resources for future use,” the FCC wrote. “We defer action on the remainder of SpaceX’s application at this time.”
Specifically, the FCC granted SpaceX authority to launch the initial block of 7,500 Starlink Gen2 satellites into orbits at 525, 530, and 535 kilometers, with inclinations of 53, 43, and 33 degrees, respectively, using Ku-band and Ka-band frequencies. The FCC deferred a decision on SpaceX’s request to operate Starlink Gen2 satellites in higher and lower orbits.
Like the first Gen2 launch last month, the Starlink 5-2 mission Thursday will target the 530-kilometer-high (329-mile) orbit at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator.
SpaceX currently has nearly 3,400 functioning Starlink satellites in space, with more than 3,100 operational and roughly 200 moving into their operational orbits, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an expert tracker of spaceflight activity and an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The first-generation Starlink network architecture includes satellites flying a few hundred miles up, orbiting at inclinations of 97.6 degrees, 70 degrees, 53.2 degrees, and 53.0 degrees to the equator. Most of SpaceX’s recent Starlink launches have released satellites into Shell 4, at an inclination of 53.2 degrees, after the company largely completed launches into the first 53-degree inclination shell last year.
Shell 5 of the Starlink network was widely believed to be one of the polar-orbiting layers of the constellation, at 97.6 degrees inclination. But the name of the first Gen2 missions — Starlink 5-1 and 5-2 — appear to suggest SpaceX has changed the naming scheme for the Starlink shells.
SpaceX’s launch team will be stationed inside a launch control center just south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for Thursday’s predawn countdown. SpaceX will begin loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the Falcon 9 vehicle at T-minus 35 minutes.
Helium pressurant will also flow into the rocket in the last half-hour of the countdown. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines will be thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s guidance and range safety systems will also be configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will vector its 1.7 million pounds of thrust — produced by nine Merlin engines — to steer southeast over the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX has resumed launches this winter using the southeasterly corridor from Cape Canaveral, rather than trajectories to the northeast, to take advantage of better sea conditions for landing of the Falcon 9’s first stage booster.
Throughout the summer and fall, SpaceX launched Starlink missions on paths toward the northeast from Florida’s Space Coast.
The Falcon 9 rocket will exceed the speed of sound in about one minute, then shut down its nine main engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The booster stage will separate from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then fire pulses from cold gas control thrusters and extend titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere.
Two braking burns will slow the rocket for landing on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” around 410 miles (660 kilometers) downrange approximately nine minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s reusable payload fairing will jettison during the second stage burn. A recovery ship is also on station in the Atlantic to retrieve the two halves of the nose cone after they splash down under parachutes.
Landing of the first stage on Thursday’s mission will occur just as the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cuts off to deliver the Starlink satellites into orbit. Separation of the 56 Starlink spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket is expected nearly 19 minutes after liftoff. SpaceX may have to wait until the rocket passes over a ground station in Guam to confirm Starlink separation from the upper stage.
The Falcon 9’s guidance computer aims to deploy the satellites into an elliptical orbit at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator, with an altitude ranging between 131 miles and 209 miles (212-by-337 kilometers). After separating from the rocket, the 56 Starlink spacecraft will unfurl solar arrays and run through automated activation steps, then use ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1067.9)
PAYLOAD: 56 Starlink satellites (Starlink 5-2)
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Jan. 26, 2023
LAUNCH TIME: 4:32:20 a.m. EST (0932:20 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 70% chance of acceptable weather; Low to moderate risk of upper level winds; Low risk of unfavorable conditions for booster recovery
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship northeast of the Bahamas
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Southeast
TARGET ORBIT: 131 miles by 209 miles (212 kilometers by 337 kilometers), 43.0 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T+00:00: Liftoff
- T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T+02:28: First stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
- T+02:31: Stage separation
- T+02:38: Second stage engine ignition
- T+02:42: Fairing jettison
- T+06:42: First stage entry burn ignition (three engines)
- T+07:00: First stage entry burn cutoff
- T+08:23: First stage landing burn ignition (one engine)
- T+08:43: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)
- T+08:44: First stage landing
- T+18:49: Starlink satellite separation
MISSION STATS:
- 199th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 209th launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006
- 9th launch of Falcon 9 booster B1067
- 171st Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast
- 111th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
- 166th launch overall from pad 40
- 141st flight of a reused Falcon 9 booster
- 69th Falcon 9 launch primarily dedicated to Starlink network
- 5th Falcon 9 launch of 2023
- 6th launch by SpaceX in 2023
- 5th orbital launch attempt based out of Cape Canaveral in 2023
Cruise ship passenger who fell overboard found dead 18 miles from Port Canaveral, Florida, coast
Video released by the Coast Guard shows the moment a Carnival cruise ship passenger was spotted and later rescued from the Gulf of Mexico after falling overboard Nov. 24.
A woman who fell overboard from a cruise ship on its return to the U.S. was found dead Thursday morning.
The 36-year-old victim fell off the MSC Meraviglia as it was returning to Port Canaveral in Florida, according to local outlet Fox 35.
CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER WHO TREADED WATER FOR 20 HOURS SPEAKS OUT, SAYS HE NEVER ACCEPTED THAT ‘THIS IS IT’
No further details on the incident will be released until the victim’s next of kin is contacted, authorities said.
Guests on the MSC Meraviglia gather by the pool as the sun sets and the ship prepares to set sail from Port Canaveral, Florida, on Oct. 13, 2022. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“A 36-year-old woman’s body was recovered from the water approximately 18 miles offshore Port Canaveral Thursday morning after she went overboard the cruise ship Meraviglia,” the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
VIKING CRUISE PASSENGER DEAD AFTER ROGUE WAVE SLAMS INTO SHIP SAILING TO ARGENTINA
MSC Cruises USA released a statement Thursday addressing the fatality.
The MSC Meraviglia is docked in Port Canaveral, Florida, on Oct. 13, 2022. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Port Canaveral signage is displayed on a mat at the entrance of a cruise terminal in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 5, 2017. (Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The crew performed an immediate search and rescue operation, alongside the U.S. Coast Guard who supported search efforts with boats and a helicopter,” the cruise line said. “Unfortunately, despite the rapid rescue operation, the passenger sustained fatal injuries. We are offering our full support to authorities as they investigate this matter.”
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Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the incident.
SpaceX counting down to late-night launch from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13F geostationary communications satellites. Follow us on Twitter.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set for blastoff at 1:22 a.m. EDT (0522 GMT) Saturday with Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13F television broadcasting satellite. The mission will mark the 100th launch by SpaceX from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Built by Airbus, the 9,868-pound (4,476-kilogram) Hotbird 13F spacecraft will beam hundreds of television and radio channels across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Hotbird 13F is the first satellite to be built on Airbus’s new Eurostar Neo spacecraft design, incorporating upgrades in propulsion, thermal control, and electrical systems.
The 116-minute launch window opens at 11:26 p.m. EDT Friday (0326 GMT Saturday) and runs until 1:22 a.m. (0522 GMT). Forecasters from the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 90% probability of favorable weather for liftoff, with only a slight chance of cumulus clouds that might create a threat of lightning.
A frontal boundary moved through Central Florida earlier Friday.
“Drier, cooler air along with higher winds filtering in from the north in the wake of the front should tamper any significant shower coverage this weekend and result in favorable launch conditions for both the primary and backup launch opportunities,” the weather team wrote in the official launch weather forecast.
SpaceX delayed the launch time Friday night to the end of the launch window to allow additional time for data review. The company did not elaborate on the reason for the data review.
The launch Friday night will be the fourth flight of a Falcon 9 rocket this month, following three Falcon 9 launches in as many days last week.
In preparation for Friday night’s launch, SpaceX ground crews rolled the Falcon 9 rocket and its commercial satellite payload to pad 40, then raised it vertical over the flame trench earlier in the day Friday. During Friday’s countdown, the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) launcher will be filled with a million pounds of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants in the final 35 minutes before liftoff.
After teams verify technical and weather parameters are all “green” for launch, the nine Merlin 1D main engines on the first stage booster will flash to life with the help of an ignition fluid called triethylaluminum/triethylborane, or TEA-TEB. Once the engines ramp up to full throttle, hydraulic clamps will open to release the Falcon 9 for its climb into space.
The nine main engines will produce 1.7 million pounds of thrust for about two-and-a-half minutes, propelling the Falcon 9 and Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13F communications satellite into the upper atmosphere. Then the booster stage — tail number B1069 in SpaceX’s fleet — will shut down and separate from the Falcon 9’s upper stage.
The booster will extend titanium grid fins and pulse cold gas thrusters to orient itself for a tail-first entry back into the atmosphere, before reigniting its engines for a braking burn and a final landing burn, targeting a vertical descent to the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” parked about 400 miles (about 640 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral.
A successful rocket landing on the drone ship will mark the completion of the booster’s third flight to space, following launch last December on a cargo mission to the International Space Station and then on Aug. 27 with a batch of Starlink internet satellites.
The booster was damaged, apparently due to rough seas, after landing on its first mission in December. SpaceX repaired the rocket and returned it to the active rotation of Falcon 9 boosters in August.
On Friday night’s mission, the Falcon 9 rocket will fire its upper stage engine two times to inject the Hotbird 13F spacecraft into an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit with an apogee, or high point, more than 20,000 miles above Earth.
Hotbird 13F will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket about 36 minutes into the mission.
After flying free of its SpaceX launcher, Hotbird 13F will unfurl solar panels and switch on its plasma propulsion system for several months of orbit-raising maneuver to reach a circular geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. The orbit-raising using electric propulsion takes longer than maneuvers relying on conventional rocket engines.
Hotbird 13F will orbit in lock-step with Earth’s rotation at 13 degrees east longitude.
By the middle of next year, Hotbird 13F should be ready to enter commercial service to start a 15-year mission broadcasting television programming to Eutelsat customers. Hotbird 13G, set for launch in November on another Falcon 9 rocket, will follow about a month after its twin satellite, heading for the same position in geostationary orbit.
“Hotbird 13F is the first of two satellites to be placed at the Eutelsat flagship 13 degrees east position, so this is an important event for us,” said Pascal Homsy, Eutelsat’s chief technical officer. “It will be the first satellite based on the electric propulsion Eurostar Neo platform by Airbus, fostering innovation and competitiveness in the European space industry.”
Thanks to improvements in satellite communications technology, Eutelsat will only need two new Hotbird satellites to replace the three aging Hotbird spacecraft operating at 13 degree east.
Homsy said the Hotbird fleet at 13 degrees east form the highest capacity satellite broadcasting system covering the Europe, Middle East, and North Africa regions, delivering 1,000 TV channels to more than 160 million homes. Hotbird 13F and 13G will broadcast signals in Ku-band frequencies.
“We have something like over 600 pay TV channels, 300 free to air channels, 450 high definition TV, and 14 ultra high definition channels broadcast from this flagship 13 degrees east position,” Homsy said. “We are able also to provide 500 radio stations and multimedia services.”
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1069.3)
PAYLOAD: Hotbird 13F communications satellite
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Oct. 14/15, 2022
LAUNCH WINDOW: 11:26 p.m. – 1:22 a.m. EDT (0326-0522 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 90% probability of acceptable weather
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: East
TARGET ORBIT: Geostationary transfer orbit
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T+00:00: Liftoff
- T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T+02:32: First stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
- T+02:35: Stage separation
- T+02:42: Second stage engine ignition
- T+03:22: Fairing jettison
- T+06:29: First stage entry burn ignition (three engines)
- T+06:57: First stage entry burn ends
- T+08:07: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)
- T+08:22: First stage landing burn ignition (one engine)
- T+08:45: First stage landing
- T+29:12: Second stage engine restart
- T+30:10: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 2)
- T+36:11: Hotbird 13F separation
MISSION STATS:
- 181st launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 189th launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006
- 3rd launch of Falcon 9 booster B1069
- 155th Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast
- 100th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
- 155th launch overall from pad 40
- 122nd flight of a reused Falcon 9 booster
- 3rd SpaceX launch for Eutelsat
- 47th Falcon 9 launch of 2022
- 47th launch by SpaceX in 2022
- 45th orbital launch attempt based out of Cape Canaveral in 2022
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.
Atlas 5 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral at dawn – Spaceflight Now
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission will launch the U.S. Space Force’s SBIRS GEO 6 missile warning satellite toward geosynchronous orbit. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
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United Launch Alliance’s fifth mission of the year lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 6:29 a.m. EDT (1029 GMT) Thursday. An Atlas 5 rocket launched on a $1.2 billion mission with a U.S. Space Force missile warning satellite.
The countdown began at 11:09 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0309 GMT Thursday) with the power-up of the rocket, checks of the launcher’s guidance system, and preparations to start loading cryogenic propellants into the Atlas 5.
The mission was the fifth Atlas 5 flight of the year, and the 95th launch of an Atlas 5 rocket overall. After Thursday’s launch, there are 21 Atlas 5s remaining in ULA’s inventory before the rocket is retired. ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is developing the next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket to replace the Atlas and Delta rocket families.
The payload for Thursday’s mission was SBIRS GEO 6, the final satellite in the Space Force’s Space Based Infrared System. The SBIRS satellites carry infrared sensors to detect heat plumes from missile launches, giving warning of a potential attack to U.S. military forces and government leaders.
Built by Lockheed Martin, the SBIRS GEO 6 satellite weighed about 10,700 pounds (4,850 kilograms) fully fueled for launch.
The first SBIRS payload in an elliptical orbit launched in 2006, and the military launched the first SBIRS satellite into geosynchronous orbit in 2011. The SBIRS program replaced the military’s Defense Support Program, a series of 23 missile warning satellites launched between 1970 and 2007.
One of the infrared cameras on each SBIRS GEO satellite scans across the spacecraft’s coverage area in a U-shaped pattern. With a fleet positioned around the world, the SBIRS satellites and the remaining long-lived DSP satellites provide global coverage to detect missile launches. Another infrared sensor can be aimed at specific regions of interest.
“There’s a staring sensor that can be pointed at and stare at a fixed point,” said Michael Corriea, Lockheed Martin’s vice president overseeing the SBIRS program. “So for example, you can task it to look over China because there was something you maybe wanted to look at in a particular area, or North Korea.
After a few hours of early countdown preparations, ULA’s launch team at Cape Canaveral’s Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center gave the “go” for the start of cryogenic tanking of the Atlas 5 around 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT).
Nearly 66,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were loaded into the two-stage Atlas 5 rocket. The Centaur upper stage’s Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine burns the hydrogen and oxygen propellant mix, and the Atlas first stage consumes liquid oxygen with 25,000 gallons room-temperature kerosene fuel, which was loaded into the rocket Tuesday, soon after ULA ground crews rolled the Atlas 5 the launch pad from the nearby Vertical Integration Facility.
Two built-in holds occurred in the countdown, one at T-minus 2 hours and another at T-minus 4 minutes, before the final four-minute terminal countdown sequence to prepare the Atlas 5 rocket liftoff.
The rocket’s propellant tanks were pressurized, and the RD-180 engine ignited at T-minus 2.7 seconds. After building up thrust on the main engine, the Atlas 5 sent the command to light two Northrop Grumman strap-on solid rocket boosters to power the launcher off pad 41 with 1.6 million pounds of thrust.
The version of the Atlas 5 used on the SBIRS GEO 6 mission is known as the “421” configuration, with the first number denoting the size of the payload fairing, the second number representing the number of solid rocket boosters, and the third digit the number of engines on the Centaur stage.
The SBIRS GEO 6 mission marked the ninth and final flight of an Atlas 5 rocket in the 421 vehicle configuration, and the final launch from Cape Canaveral of an Atlas 5 rocket with the Atlas program’s classic conical 4-meter (13-foot) diameter nose cone. One more Atlas 5 with a 4-meter fairing is scheduled to launch later this year from California, while the rest will fly with the larger, more bulbous 5-meter payload fairing.
After liftoff, the 194-foot-tall (59-meter) Atlas 5 rocket, designated AV-097 for this mission, headed east from Cape Canaveral to target the mission’s elliptical, or oval-shaped, geosynchronous transfer orbit
The Atlas 5 surpassed the speed of sound in 49 seconds, then shed its spent strap-on boosters at T+plus 2 minutes, 13 seconds.
The first stage’s RD-180 engine fired until T+plus 4 minutes, 12 seconds. Six seconds later, the first stage separated from the Atlas 5’s Centaur upper stage, which ignited its RL10 engine at T+plus 4 minutes, 28 seconds. The clamshell-like payload shroud on top of the Atlas 5 jettisoned at T+plus 4 minutes, 36 seconds, once the rocket was flying above the thick lower layers of the atmosphere.
Three RL10 engine burns are planned before the Atlas 5 releases the SBIRS GEO 6 satellite at T+plus 3 hours, 1 minute.
The Atlas 5’s guidance computer will aim to release the spacecraft in an orbit ranging in altitude between 3,242 miles (5,218 kilometers) and 21,956 miles (35,335 kilometers), with an inclination angle of 17.63 degrees to the equator.
The SBIRS GEO 6 spacecraft will use an on-board propulsion system to steer itself to a circular geosynchronous orbit that is continuously at an altitude of nearly 22,300 miles over the equator. In that orbit, the satellite’s velocity will be fixed with the rate of Earth’s rotation, giving the craft’s infrared early warning sensors a constant view of the same part of the planet.
The satellite will also extend power-generating polar panels and light shades to begin fine-tuning the performance of is heat-seeking sensors.
SBIRS GEO 6 should be ready to enter operational service in early 2023, according to Space Force officials. The satellite is designed for a 12-year mission. Read our mission preview story for more details on SBIRS GEO 6.
ROCKET: Atlas 5 (AV-097)
MISSION: SBIRS GEO 6
PAYLOAD: SBIRS GEO 6 missile warning satellite
CUSTOMER: U.S. Space Force
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Aug. 4, 2022
LAUNCH WINDOW: 6:29-7:09 a.m. EDT (1029-1109 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 80% chance of acceptable weather
BOOSTER RECOVERY: None
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: East
TARGET ORBIT: Perigee of 3,242 miles (5,218 kilometers); Apogee of 21,956 miles (35,335 kilometers); Inclination angle of 17.63 degrees to the equator.
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T-00:00:02.7: RD-180 ignition
- T+00:00:01.1: Liftoff
- T+00:00:06.0: Begin pitch/yaw maneuver
- T+00:00:48.9: Mach 1
- T+00:00:52.5: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T+00:02:13.3: Solid rocket booster jettison
- T+00:04:12.4: Atlas booster engine cutoff (BECO)
- T+00:04:18.4: Atlas/Centaur stage separation
- T+00:04:28.4: Centaur first main engine start (MES-1)
- T+00:04:36.4: Payload fairing jettison
- T+00:12:55.4: Centaur first main engine cutoff (MECO-1)
- T+00:22:54.6: Centaur second main engine start (MES-2)
- T+00:27:38.8: Centaur second main engine cutoff (MECO-2)
- T+02:57:40.5: Centaur third main engine start (MES-3)
- T+02:58:38.4: Centaur third main engine cutoff (MECO-3)
- T+03:01:27.4: SBIRS GEO 6 spacecraft separation
MISSION STATS:
- 677th launch for Atlas program since 1957
- 378th Atlas launch from Cape Canaveral
- 266th mission of a Centaur upper stage
- 243rd use of Centaur by an Atlas rocket
- 513th production RL10 engine to be launched
- 2nd RL10C-1-1 engine launched
- 101st flight of an RD-180 main engine
- 95th launch of an Atlas 5 since 2002
- 37th U.S. Air Force/Space Force use of an Atlas 5
- 18th-19th GEM-63 solid rocket boosters flown
- 79th launch of an Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral
- 5th Atlas 5 launch of 2022
- 137th Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle flight
- 152nd United Launch Alliance flight overall
- 87th Atlas 5 under United Launch Alliance
- 110th United Launch Alliance flight from Cape Canaveral
- 6th launch of a SBIRS GEO satellite
- 57th 400-series flight of the Atlas 5
- 9th Atlas 5 to fly in the 421 configuration
- 106th launch from Complex 41
- 79th Atlas 5 to use Complex 41
- 33rd orbital launch overall from Cape Canaveral in 2022
South Korean spacecraft fueled for ride from Cape Canaveral to the moon – Spaceflight Now
A South Korean spacecraft set for launch to the moon next week from Cape Canaveral has been loaded with the fuel it needs to maneuver into a low-altitude lunar orbit for image-taking and scientific observations.
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO, spacecraft is set for launch at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) next Thursday, Aug. 4, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Mission managers said earlier this week the launch was delayed two days to allow time for SpaceX to complete additional work on the Falcon 9 rocket.
Technicians and engineers working inside SpaceX’s payload processing facility recently completed fueling of the Korean lunar probe, following the spacecraft’s delivery to Cape Canaveral from South Korea on July 6.
The spacecraft was loaded with hydrazine fuel inside the SpaceX clean room. South Korean engineers who traveled to the launch base with the KPLO spacecraft also completed final tests on the probe, South Korea’s first mission to the moon and first venture in deep space exploration.
The 1,495-pound (678-kilogram) spacecraft was expected to be encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing after fueling. The aeroshell will protect the spacecraft during the final phase of launch preparations, and during the first few minutes of the launch itself.
Then SpaceX will transport the payload module from the processing facility to the Falcon 9 rocket’s hangar a couple miles away, where ground teams will connect the spacecraft inside the rocket’s nose cone to the Falcon 9’s upper stage.
The entire rocket will then roll out and will be raised vertical on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. The KPLO mission is one of two launches currently scheduled next Thursday at the Florida spaceport. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket with a U.S. military satellite is set to lift off about 12-and-a-half hours before the Falcon 9 rocket on the KPLO mission.
Part of the KPLO mission’s purpose is in its name. The mission is a pathfinder, or precursor, for South Korea’s future ambitions in space exploration, which include a robotic landing on the moon in the early 2030s. South Korea has also signed up to join the NASA-led Artemis Accords, and could contribute to the U.S. space agency’s human lunar exploration program.
The KPLO mission is also named Danuri, a combination of the words “dal” and “nurida” in Korean, meaning “enjoy the moon.”
“The basic idea of this mission is technological development and demonstration,” said Eunhyeuk Kim from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. “Also, using the science instruments, we are hoping to get some useful data on the lunar surface.”
The mission carries six science instruments and technology demonstration payloads.
KPLO will test a new South Korean spacecraft platform designed for deep space operations, along with new communication, control, and navigation capabilities, including the validation of an “interplanetary internet” connection using a disruption tolerant network.
The mission’s scientific objectives include mapping the lunar surface to help select future landing sites, surveying resources like water ice on the moon, and probing the radiation environment near the moon.
The $180 million (233.3 billion won) mission will launch toward the moon on a low-energy, fuel-efficient ballistic lunar transfer trajectory, a path being pioneered by NASA’s small CAPSTONE spacecraft, a tech demo mission that launched last month on a Rocket Lab mission and is scheduled to slip into orbit around the moon in November.
If KPLO launches in the first week of August, its arrival date at the moon is fixed on Dec. 16. The Falcon 9 will propel the spacecraft on a trajectory that will take it close to the L1 Lagrange point, a gravitationally-stable location nearly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from the daytime side of the Earth, some four times farther than the moon.
Gravitational forces will naturally pull the spacecraft back toward the Earth and the moon, where the Korean probe will be captured in orbit Dec. 16. A series of propulsive maneuvers with the spacecraft’s thrusters will steer KPLO into a circular low-altitude orbit about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the lunar surface by New Year’s Eve.
After a month of commissioning and tests, the spacecraft’s year-long primary science mission should begin around Feb. 1. If the orbiter has enough fuel, mission managers could consider an extended mission beginning in 2024, Kim said.
One of the payloads on the KPLO, or Danuri, mission is a U.S.-built instrument named ShadowCam.
Derived from the main camera on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, ShadowCam will peer inside dark craters near the moons poles, where previous missions detected evidence of water ice deposits. The NASA-funded ShadowCam instrument is hundreds of times more sensitive than LRO’s camera, allowing it to collect high-resolution, high signal-to-noise imagery of the insides of always-dark craters using reflected light.
NASA is also providing tracking and communications support for the KPLO mission through its Deep Space Network antennas in California, Spain, and Australia. KARI, South Korea’s space agency, also has its own deep space communications antenna, but it doesn’t offer the continuous coverage of NASA’s worldwide network.
South Korea began developing the KPLO mission in 2016 for a planned launch in 2020, but officials delayed the mission due after the spacecraft grew above its original launch weight, and engineers needed more time to complete detailed design work.
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Countdown begins for Atlas 5 launch from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission, known as USSF 12, will launch the U.S. Space Force’s Wide Field of View Testbed satellite and the USSF 12 Ring spacecraft into geosynchronous orbit. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
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A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is ready to boost two experimental U.S. Space Force satellites all the way to geosynchronous orbit in a six-hour mission launching from Cape Canaveral Thursday. The two-hour launch window opens at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT).
There is a 40% chance of favorable weather at the opening of the window Thursday in the official launch forecast issued by the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron. The forecast improves later in the window, when there’s a 60% chance of favorable conditions for launch.
The mission, codenamed USSF 12, will be the fourth Atlas 5 flight of the year, and the 94th launch of an Atlas 5 rocket overall. It is one of 23 Atlas 5s remaining in ULA’s inventory before the rocket is retired. ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is developing the next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket to replace the Atlas and Delta rocket families.
One of the payloads on the mission is the Space Force’s Wide Field Of View, or WFOV, Testbed satellite to demonstrate a new infrared sensor capable of detecting and tracking missile launches, providing early warning of a potential attack on the United States of allied nations.
The WFOV spacecraft will ride to space in the upper portion of the Atlas 5 rocket’s payload compartment. A secondary payload, called the USSF 12 Ring, is positioned below the WFOV spacecraft for launch. It hosts multiple payloads, experiments and prototypes, but details about their missions are classified.
A Space Force spokesperson told Spaceflight Now the entire USSF 12 mission, including the payloads and launch services, cost about $1.1 billion.
The countdown for the launch Thursday began at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT). ULA teams planned to turn on the Atlas 5 flight computer, complete checks of the rocket’s guidance system, and then configure the vehicle for the start of cryogenic tanking around 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT).
Nearly 66,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be loaded into the two-stage Atlas 5 rocket. The Centaur upper stage’s Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine burns the hydrogen and oxygen propellant mix, and the Atlas first stage consumes liquid oxygen with 25,000 gallons room-temperature kerosene fuel, which was loaded into the rocket Wednesday, soon after ULA ground crews rolled the Atlas 5 the launch pad from the nearby Vertical Integration Facility.
Two built-in holds are planned in the countdown, one at T-minus 2 hours and another at T-minus 4 minutes, before the final four-minute terminal countdown sequence to prepare the Atlas 5 rocket liftoff.
The rocket’s propellant tanks will be pressurized, and the RD-180 engine will ignite at T-minus 1 second. After building up thrust on the main engine, the Atlas 5 will send the command to light four Northrop Grumman strap-on solid rocket boosters to power the launcher off pad 41 with 2.3 million pounds of thrust.
The version of the Atlas 5 launching on the USSF 12 mission is known as the “541” configuration, with the first number denoting the size of the payload fairing, the second number representing the number of solid rocket booster, and the third digit the number of engines on the Centaur stage.
The 196-foot-tall (59.7-meter) Atlas 5 rocket, designated AV-094 for this mission, will head east from Cape Canaveral to target the mission’s equatorial orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth.
The Atlas 5 will surpass the speed of sound in 58 seconds, then shed its spent strap-on boosters at T+plus 1 minute, 48 seconds. The 5.4-meter-wide (17.7-foot) composite payload shroud will jettison at T+plus 3 minutes, 25 seconds, and the Russian-made RD-180 core stage engine will fire until T+plus 4 minutes, 24 seconds.
The USSF 12 mission marks the 100th flight of an RD-180 engine since it first launched in May 2000 on an Atlas 3 rocket.
After separation of the Atlas first stage, ULA’s Centaur upper stage will take over the flight with three burns of its single RL10 engine to first place the two Space Force payloads into a parking orbit, then propel the mission into higher orbits and on a trajectory hugging the equator.
The WFOV Testbed spacecraft, built by Millennium Space Systems, will separate from the Centaur upper stage at T+plus 5 hours, 49 minutes. An adapter structure will release about 10 minutes later, revealing the Northrop Grumman-built USSF 12 Ring payload for separation at T+plus 6 hours, 5 minutes.
ROCKET: Atlas 5 (AV-094)
MISSION: USSF 12
PAYLOAD: WFOV Testbed and USSF 12 Ring
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: June 30 , 2022
LAUNCH WINDOW: 6:00-8:00 p.m. EDT (2200-0000 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 60% chance of acceptable weather
BOOSTER RECOVERY: None
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: East
TARGET ORBIT: Approximately 22,440 miles, 0.0 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T-00:00:01.0: RD-180 ignition
- T+00:00:01.0: Liftoff
- T+00:00:06.9: Begin pitch/yaw maneuver
- T+00:00:57.8: Mach 1
- T+00:01:07.4: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T+00:01:48.4: Solid rocket booster jettison
- T+00:03:25.6: Payload fairing jettison
- T+00:04:24.3: Atlas booster engine cutoff (BECO)
- T+00:04:30.3: Atlas/Centaur stage separation
- T+00:04:40.2: Centaur first main engine start (MES-1)
- T+00:10:58.2: Centaur first main engine cutoff (MECO-1)
- T+00:23:13.6: Centaur second main engine start (MES-2)
- T+00:28:41.9: Centaur second main engine cutoff (MECO-2)
- T+05:43:54.1: Centaur third main engine start (MES-3)
- T+05:46:20.0: Centaur third main engine cutoff (MECO-3)
- T+05:49:36.0: WFOV Testbed spacecraft separation
- T+05:59:03.9: Booster adapter separation
- T+06:05:21.0: USSF 12 Ring spacecraft separation
MISSION STATS:
- 676th launch for Atlas program since 1957
- 377th Atlas launch from Cape Canaveral
- 265th mission of a Centaur upper stage
- 242nd use of Centaur by an Atlas rocket
- 512th production RL10 engine to be launched
- 40th RL10C-1 engine launched
- 100th flight of an RD-180 main engine
- 94th launch of an Atlas 5 since 2002
- 36th U.S. Air Force/Space Force use of an Atlas 5
- 14th-17th GEM-63 solid rocket boosters flown
- 78th launch of an Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral
- 4th Atlas 5 launch of 2022
- 136th Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle flight
- 151st United Launch Alliance flight overall
- 86th Atlas 5 under United Launch Alliance
- 109th United Launch Alliance flight from Cape Canaveral
- 35th 500-series flight of the Atlas 5
- 9th Atlas 5 to fly in the 541 configuration
- 105th launch from Complex 41
- 78th Atlas 5 to use Complex 41
- 28th orbital launch overall from Cape Canaveral in 2022
Astra counting down to launch today at Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now
Astra is counting down to the first of three launches this summer to deploy a fleet of six small NASA hurricane research satellites. Liftoff of Astra’s small launcher from Cape Canaveral with the first two TROPICS nanosatellites is scheduled during a two-hour window opening at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), weather permitting.
The official launch weather forecast from the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 60% chance of unfavorable conditions for liftoff at the opening of the two-hour window Sunday. By the end of the window, the probability of bad weather rises to 90%.
Astra will launch the mission from Space Launch Complex 46, a commercial launch facility operated by Space Florida near the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The rocket flying Sunday, called Rocket 3.3 or LV0010, is the smallest orbital-class launcher currently in service worldwide. It stands about 43 feet (13.1 meters) tall and weighs about as much as a small business jet when fully fueled.
The two TROPICS satellites are each about the size of a loaf of bread or a shoebox. They are crammed with miniaturized sensor technology that once needed to fly on a satellite larger than a refrigerator.
Microwave radiometers on each of the TROPICS satellites will collect imagery, temperature and moisture data over tropical cyclones. With a fleet of satellites, the TROPICS mission will be capable of monitoring rapid changes in cyclones at a cadence of at least once per hour.
“Those are important variables because they can be related to the intensity of the storm, and even potential for future intensification,” said William Blackwell, principal investigator for the TROPICS mission from MIT Lincoln Laboratory. “So we’re trying to make those measurements with relatively high revisit. That’s really the key new feature that the TROPICS constellation provides, is improved revisit of the storms.
“We’ll have six satellites orbiting, and one satellite will work to make a nice image of the storm, and then the next satellite will orbit closely behind it about an hour behind,” Blackwell said. “So we’ll get, roughly every hour, a new image of the storm, and that’s about a factor of five-to-eight better than what we get today. With these new measurements of rapidly updated imagery, we hope that that will help us understand the storm better, and ultimately lead to better forecasting of the hurricane track and intensity.”
TROPICS stands for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats. The mission has a total cost of approximately $32 million, according to NASA.
Each TROPICS satellite, assembled by Blue Canyon Technologies in Colorado, weighs about 11.8 pounds (5.3 kilograms).
Astra will aim to release the two TROPICS satellites into an orbit about 357 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth, with an inclination of 29.75 degrees to the equator. The low-inclination orbit will focus the TROPICS observations on hotspots for tropical cyclone development.
Founded in 2016, Astra aims to eventually launch daily missions to carry small satellites into orbit for a range of customers, including the U.S. military, commercial companies, and NASA. The company has successfully reached orbit in two of six tries.
Astra’s most recent flight in March marked the first time the company placed functioning satellites into orbit, following a liftoff from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The previous Astra launch in February, which departed Cape Canaveral, failed to place a payload of NASA-sponsored CubeSats into orbit.
NASA officials are aware of the risk of flying satellites on a new, relatively unproven launcher. TROPICS is part of NASA’s Earth Venture program, a series of cost-capped missions designed for Earth science research. NASA assumes more risk for Venture-class missions, and the agency says only four of the six TROPICS satellites, or two of the three Astra launches, need to work.
Astra’s first launch with two TROPICS satellites will begin with the ignition of Rocket 3.3’s five kerosene-fueled engines at pad 46. The Delphin engines will drive the launcher off the pad with 32,500 pounds of thrust, powering the rocket downrange to the east-northeast from Cape Canaveral.
First stage engine cutoff is expected three minutes after liftoff, followed by separation of the rocket’s payload shroud, which covers the upper stage and the TROPICS payloads during the climb through the atmosphere. Then rocket’s booster stage will jettison to fall into the Atlantic, allowing the upper stage to ignite its small 740-pound-thrust for a five-minute burn to accelerate to orbital velocity.
Deployment the TROPICS satellites is scheduled at T+plus 8 minutes, 40 seconds, according to a mission timeline posted by Astra.
The satellites will unfurl solar panels to begin generating electricity, and ground teams will run the TROPICS spacecraft through tests and checkouts.
The second and third TROPICS launches — currently planned for late June and mid-July — will aim to deploy the next four satellites into precise orbital planes, giving the constellation the proper spacing to enable regular flyovers of cyclones.
If the three TROPICS launches get off the ground as scheduled, the satellites should all be collecting by August, just in time for the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, according to Will McCarty, NASA’s program scientist for the mission. The mission is designed for at least one year of science observations.
Many CubeSats ride to space on rideshare launches, allowing operators to take advantage of lower costs by bundling their payloads on a single large rocket. But the TROPICS satellites need dedicated launches to reach their precise orbital destinations.
“We want to space out the spacecraft as much as we can, and want to keep them over the tropical cyclone belt,” Blackwell said. “This overall configuration lets us do that, but it requires three separate dedicated launchers.”
Astra beat out bids from SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, and Momentus, largely due to their lower-cost proposal, according to NASA. NASA is paying Astra nearly $8 million for the entire three-launch campaign.
ROCKET: Astra’s Rocket 3.3 (LV0010)
PAYLOAD: TROPICS-1 (two satellites)
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-46, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: June 12, 2022
LAUNCH WINDOW: 12:00-2:00 p.m. EDT (1600-1800 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 60% to 90% chance of violating weather constraints
BOOSTER RECOVERY: None
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: East-northeast
TARGET ORBIT: 357 miles (550 kilometers), 29.75 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T+00:00: Liftoff
- T+00:06: Begin pitch over
- T+01:10: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T+03:00: First stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
- T+03:05: Payload fairing jettison
- T+03:10: Stage separation
- T+03:15: Second stage engine ignition
- T+08:30: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO)
- T+08:40: TROPICS deployment
MISSION STATS:
- 7th orbital launch attempt by Astra
- 5th launch of Astra’s Rocket 3.3 configuration
- 2nd Astra launch from Florida
- 5th orbital launch attempt from pad 46
- 3rd Astra launch of 2022
- 24th orbital launch based out of Cape Canaveral in 2022
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Watch SpaceX launch Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral
Update: Liftoff of Falcon 9 with 48 Starlink satellites! The 6:12 p.m. liftoff marked the company’s 32nd launch for the internet constellation, which will see the new satellites come online after several weeks of adjusting orbits.
Follow live as SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station target 6:12 p.m. ET Thursday for the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with 48 Starlink satellites. The launch window is instantaneous, meaning Falcon 9 must fly on time or delay to another day.
Weather conditions for liftoff are nearly 100% “go,” according to the Space Force, and SpaceX will target a drone ship landing shortly after liftoff.
See real-time updates and join our live chat below:
New SpaceX drone ship arrives at Port Canaveral – Spaceflight Now
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A new SpaceX drone ship named “A Shortfall of Gravitas” was towed into Port Canaveral Thursday, completing a shuffling of SpaceX’s rocket landing platforms to support upcoming launches from Florida and California.
“A Shortfall of Gravitas” was towed from a construction facility in Louisiana after completing an initial series of sea trials. SpaceX teams at Port Canaveral will finish readying the drone ship for offshore landings of Falcon rocket boosters.
The name of the new landing platform is a nod to “Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall,” a starship featured in the “Culture” science fiction novel series by the late Scottish author Iain M. Banks.
SpaceX’s two other drone ships are also named for sentient, planet-sized ships in Banks’ novels: “Just Read the Instructions” and “Of Course I Still Love You.”
The drone ships allow SpaceX to recover and reuse Falcon 9 boosters, cutting costs and increasing the company’s launch rate.
With three drone ships now in its fleet, SpaceX is set up for a regular cadence of flights from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, following a lull in Falcon 9 launch activity at the West Coast launch site.
SpaceX has launched just one Falcon 9 rocket mission from Vandenberg in the last two years. On that mission, the Falcon 9 booster returned to a landing on a pad near the launch site at Vandenberg.
Beginning as soon as the last week of July, SpaceX plans to launch a series of Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg carrying Starlink internet satellites into orbit. The Falcon 9 boosters used on those launches will land offshore due to the heavy weight of the Starlink payloads, leaving insufficient propellant on the rocket to reverse course and return to the launch site.
SpaceX recently moved the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” from Florida to the Port of Los Angeles in anticipation of the upcoming Starlink missions. The company is expected to launch Starlink missions from Vandenberg as often as once per month, kicking off the next phase of deployment of the global internet network.
The vessel rode on a barge through the Panama Canal before arriving in Southern California on July 6.
SpaceX will use the new drone ship in rotation with “Just Read the Instructions” to support missions from Cape Canaveral. The company previously used a similar rotation of the other two drone ships at Port Canaveral, supporting 20 Falcon 9 launches and landing attempts in the first half of this year.
It can take up to a week to deploy the drone ship, recover the rocket and return it to port, and that assumes no launch delays. Turnaround times can be even longer once the booster is offloaded in port, and the vessel is prepared for another trip to sea. The presence of two drone ships in Florida will allow SpaceX to continue its busy launch schedule.
Later this year, SpaceX will deploy both Florida ships for dual offshore landings of the two side boosters on the next launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket for the U.S. Space Force. SpaceX will expend the Falcon Heavy’s center core stage on that launch due to mission requirements to place the military payloads into a high-altitude geosynchronous orbit, according to a Space Force spokesperson.
Each drone ship is emblazoned with a bullseye with a stylized “X” logo. The landing platform is roughly the size of a football field, and the ships are based on Marmac barge hulls originally built for other purposes.
Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, announced the company was building a third drone ship in 2018.
Autonomous SpaceX droneship,
A Shortfall of Gravitas pic.twitter.com/hNZ5U7nxUg— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2021
“Team did great work! Will be epic to see the deep sea oil rigs converted to ocean spaceports for Starship,” Musk tweeted Thursday, referring to SpaceX’s work to outfit giant oil rigs for launches and landings of the company’s next-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle.
The new drone ship has a sleeker look than SpaceX’s first two rocket landing vessels. It has a Starlink antenna to connect to SpaceX’s space-based broadband network, and support equipment is housed inside the ship’s structure for better protection against rocket blast during landing.
Underwater thrusters allow the ship to hold position in the ocean to await each rocket landing. A support crew is stationed on a nearby ship.
There also improvements to lighting on “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” and Musk tweeted that the new vessel is designed to be fully autonomous, unlike the other two ships, which require a tug to travel to and from the landing zone.
SpaceX has successfully recovered Falcon rocket boosters 89 times since the company’s first rocket landing in December 2015. The first successful booster landing on a drone ship was in April 2016.
Sixty-six of SpaceX’s Falcon booster landings to date have occurred on a drone ship, with another 20 successful touchdowns on SpaceX’s two onshore landing zones at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Three Falcon boosters have returned to landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
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