A Falcon 9 rocket launches a Starlink mission from Florida on Feb. 27, 2023. SpaceX shot up three Falcon 9 rockets from Kennedy Space Center in late July, 2024, knocking out the company’s 50th Space Coast launch of the year. (Flickr/SpaceX)
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (Tribune News Service) — SpaceX shot up three Falcon 9 rockets from three launch pads last weekend once the Federal Aviation Administration gave its grounded rocket the OK to return to flight. Now it’s set to go another round.
First up was a Falcon 9 launch of 23 more Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 1:01 a.m. on what was SpaceX’s 50th launch from the Space Coast for 2024.
The first-stage booster for the mission made its 12th flight with another recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic Ocean on board the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
The launch was the 54th from all launch providers on the the Space Coast with United Launch Alliance responsible for the other four.
The workhorse Falcon 9 has been tapped for 49 of SpaceX’s 50 launches while the year has had one lone Falcon Heavy liftoff so far.
SpaceX’s record pace was slowed for a couple of weeks in July after an issue with the Falcon 9’s upper stage during a launch from California that was tracked to a liquid oxygen leak blamed on a sense line connected to a supply tank. The end result was a frozen-over upper stage engine that caused SpaceX to not be able to relight its engine ultimately leading to a loss of its payload.
The FAA grounded the Falcon 9 until SpaceX submitted its mishap investigation, which came with suggested remedies to the likely source that included removal of the sense line from the rest of its Falcon 9 upper stages in SpaceX’s active fleet. It also removed similar lines on certain places on the first stage. The results were enough for the FAA to allow SpaceX to return to flight, and it managed three launches within 28 hours from Saturday into Sunday from KSC, Cape Canaveral and California.
SpaceX has a second launch from the Space Coast lined up for Saturday if weather cooperates.
A Falcon 9 is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:28 a.m. carrying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
SLD 45’s weather squadron forecasts only a 50% chance for favorable conditions, which falls to 40% in the event of a 24-hour delay.
The region could see rough conditions because of a potential tropical depression that could form off Florida’s coast this weekend.
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