Covering All Things Florida
Boeing Starliner has successfully returned to Earth. The touchdown was at 12:00 AM EDT when Starliner landed at White Sands Space Harbor.
SpaceX launched the Starlink 8-11 mission into hazy skies with storms looming in the distance late this morning aboard Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
NASA’s spacecraft factory inside Kennedy Space Center’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building is set to become a very busy place in the coming months, as several pieces integral to the Artemis program, including parts for the SLS rocket, have arrived by boat and barge at the Florida facility. The new hardware will be assembled with other existing Artemis pieces already on site at KSC there and in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the coming months.
Update: Wednesday’s Starlink launch attempt was called off with slightly more than two minutes left in the countdown due to weather in the booster landing zone. Florida is experiencing a rather stormy week, leading to a high degree of uncertainty in the week’s launch schedule.
SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 Thursday morning from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, carrying another group of Starlink satellites. According to SpaceX, “Liftoff is targeted for 8:35 a.m. ET, with additional opportunities available until 12:31 p.m. ET.”
SpaceX got right back to business early Saturday morning as it launched the Starlink 8-10 mission aboard Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 launches.
SpaceX has called off the Polaris Dawn launch of Falcon 9 until at least Friday, August 29th. The company announced shortly after 10 PM EDT that it was standing down for the night, and stated on its website that the next launch attempt would be no earlier than the end of the week.
SpaceX plans to launch Polaris Dawn early tomorrow morning from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, with four astronauts aboard a Crew Dragon.
The plan to develop some of Florida’s state parks with new amenities such as golf courses and pickleball courts has not yet been cancelled, but after overwhelmingly negative feedback from the public and pushback from Florida’s two US Senators, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has rescheduled public meetings and created a web page for the public to offer their feedback.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced today that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will not return to Earth on Boeing Starliner and will be aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
On Monday, the DeSantis administration announced the “Great Outdoors Initiative,” which includes plans to add golf courses and other resort-type amenities to some Florida state parks. That plan was immediately met with opposition from the general public and from environmentalists alike.
SpaceX launched another tranche of Starlink satellites to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.
