SpaceX satellite launch from Kennedy Space Center tops off 3 launches in 30 hours

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Dec 5, 2024

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ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX sent up a commercial satellite late Thursday morning from Kennedy Space Center completing three launches in just under 30 hours among its three active pads in Florida and California.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the SiriusXM SXM-9 mission took up the satellite radio company’s hardware built by Maxar Space Systems to geosynchronous transfer orbit with liftoff from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 11:10 a.m. under mostly clear skies.

The first-stage booster made its 19th launch with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. It marked the 380th successful booster landing for the company since 2015, and the 100th alone for Just Read the Instructions, one of three doneships SpaceX uses alongside A Shortfall of Gravitas, both of which sail out of Port Canaveral, and the west coast-based Of Course I Still Love You.

It marked the 87th launch from the Space Coast in 2024 with all but five of those coming from SpaceX.

The 86th came early Wednesday at 5:13 a.m. when a Falcon 9 launched 24 Starlink satellites from neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX also sent up another Starlink mission on the west coast from California’s Vandenburg Space Force Base at 10:05 p.m. Wednesday.

That’s already a record that bested the 72 Space Coast launches from pads at both KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but with only 25 days left in the year, it’s unlikely to reach 100.

United Launch Alliance had originally planned to knock out two more launches of its new Vulcan Centaur on national security missions, but the rocket has seen a delay in certification for those flights by the Space Force after a booster issue on the last launch. Those now won’t take place until 2025.

Blue Origin meanwhile could be gearing up for a hot fire soon of its New Glenn rocket on the pad at Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 36 with Jeff Bezos’ company still sticking to the goal of launching it on its debut mission before the end of the year.

For its part, SpaceX plans to continue Falcon 9 launches at a pace of about two per week from Florida.

Including launches in California, though, SpaceX has now launched 124 orbital missions as well as four suborbital test flights of its Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Texas.

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