SpaceX aims for its own record with company's 69th Space Coast launch of the year

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX may have contributed to an overall Space Coast record with its last launch over the last weekend, but a Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral tonight will be the most launches Elon Musk’s company has ever sent up from Florida in one year.

A Falcon 9 with 23 Starlink satellites is aiming for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 5:10 p.m. during a window that stretches until 9:08 p.m. with backup options on Thursday during a four-hour window that opens at 5:07 p.m.

Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts a 75% chance for good conditions with liftoff winds and cumulus clouds the primary concerns. The forecast improves to 90% in the event of a 24-hour delay.

The first-stage booster for the mission is making its 14th launch with a planned recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic Ocean on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

This marks the 74th launch from the Space Coast in 2024, building on the new record that already surpassed 2023’s 72 launches on Oct. 26.

But this is the 69th launch for SpaceX for the year, besting its total in 2023 by one from either Cape Canaveral or neighboring Kennedy Space Center. United Launch Alliance has flown the other five so far.

Of SpaceX’s 69 launches, 67 have been the Falcon 9, and the majority of those have been to build out its Starlink constellation. The other two were Falcon Heavy rockets.

It’s not yet a record for SpaceX’s pad at Canaveral’s SLC 40, though, which had 55 of SpaceX’s 68 launches in 2023. This will only be SLC 40’s 51st for 2024 with the other 18 so far in 2024 by SpaceX from KSC.

This marks the 202nd dedicated Starlink mission for SpaceX since the first operational satellites were launched in 2019, according to statistics maintained by astronomer Jonathan McDowell. This batch pushes the total number of satellites launched to more than 7,200, of which more than 6,500 remain in orbit.

With this mission, that includes 71 in 2024 among its Florida and California pads including a launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base earlier Wednesday.

For the year, SpaceX will have flown 105 orbital launches from its Falcon-class rocket pads as well as three suborbital missions of the in-development Starship and Super Heavy from its Texas test launch site.

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