SpaceX sends up 1st Kennedy Space Center launch of the year

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Jan 8, 2025

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SpaceX completed its first launch from Kennedy Space Center for the year on Wednesday morning.

A Falcon 9 carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifted off at 10:27 a.m. Eastern time from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A.

The first-stage booster made its third flight having previously flown on the GOES-U mission for the NOAA as well as another Starlink mission. It made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.

The flight was the third on the Space Coast for the year with the other two also by SpaceX, but from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

SpaceX flew all but five of the record 93 orbital launches from KSC and Canaveral in 2024 with United Launch Alliance responsible for the rest.

While ULA has yet to announce its next launch, a new rocket company could make its Space Coast debut as Friday morning when Blue Origin’s New Glenn is targeting a launch from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 36 during a 1-4 a.m. launch window.

SpaceX, meanwhile, has its next Cape Canaveral launch lined up for later Friday morning with another Starliink mission targeting a launch window that runs from 10:27 a.m.-2:27 p.m.

SpaceX’s next KSC launch could be as early as Jan. 15 at 1:11 a.m. when a Falcon 9 looks to take up both the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost moon lander on Blue Ghost Mission 1, the third of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions, and the Japanese company ispace’s Hakuto Mission-2 lunar lander for JAXA.

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