Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station earlier this evening, kicking off what could prove to be quite a busy week for the company.
Liftoff was at 7:05 PM EDT, with the rocket taking a southeasterly direction into late afternoon skies. Around eight and one-half minutes after liftoff, B1077, the booster used for the mission, touched down safely on ASDS Just Read The Instructions, while the second stage continued to orbit, where it delivered another 23 satellites for the Starlink network.
That was just the first part of SpaceX’s week to come. 23 more satellites to launched to orbit Sunday tonight from California’s Vandenberg Air Force base as the Starlink 7-17 mission.
Photo: Charles Boyer / FMN
Booster B1077 will return to Port Canaveral, after which it will be taken to SpaceX’s Hangar X facility at Kennedy Space Center, where it will be inspected, refurbished at prepared for its next flight.
A Busy Week Ahead For SpaceX
Several hours after the scheduled Vandenberg launch, Crew-7 and its four astronauts are scheduled to board their Crew Dragon capsule “Endurance” and depart the International Space Station at 11:05 AM EDT Monday morning. Splashdown for the crew is slated to happen off the Florida Coast at 5:35 AM EDT Tuesday.
Wednesday evening, the company plans to launch another batch of Starlink satellites, this time from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center here in Florida on the Starlink 6-44 mission.
Amidst all that activity, SpaceX has also announced that it is planning for the third test flight of its Starship Heavy rocket from Texas. They are currently awaiting a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration for that launch, but at this point in time, that permit seems to be forthcoming, as the FAA has included Starship in its weekly planning document that it issues to aviators.
That’s quite the week for a country, much less a single company.
This story was written by FMN Senior Correspondent Charles Boyer for TalkofTitusville.com
