“The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements,” according to an emailed statement.

Starship and Super Heavy’s first attempt at a launch on April 20 ended up with significant destruction to the launch pad and the rocket being sent a self-destruct command after the Starship didn’t separate from the Super Heavy first stage. The FAA grounded the next-generation rocket as it worked through dozens of required fixes before allowing SpaceX a second try.

SpaceX issued a noise advisory for Friday morning stating it was targeting a 120-minute launch window from its Boca Chica, Texas launch facility Starbase beginning at 8 a.m. EST (7 a.m. CST).

“Residents of Cameron County and those in the nearby area may hear a loud noise resulting from the rocket’s 33 Raptor engines firing upon ignition and as the vehicle launches toward space, but what people experience will depend on weather and other conditions,” SpaceX stated.

It said it would begin a live broadcast of its operations about 30 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com/launches and on its feed on X.

The FAA said it had approved all aspects of the proposed launch, which will see the combined Starship and Super Heavy once again launch out over the Gulf of Mexico generating more than 17 million pounds of thrust in an attempt to reach an orbital trajectory. While it had previously signed off on the safety aspects of the operation, the FAA was awaiting the report of the launch’s environmental impact.

“After consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a written evaluation of the 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment, the FAA concluded there are no significant environmental changes.” the FAA stated.

Musk had last month poked fun at having to wait on FWS for his rocket launch, posting to X, “I would like to buy a license for my fish.”

Plans are for Starship to separate from Super Heavy and for that booster to fall back for a hard landing in the Gulf of Mexico while Starship continues on a trajectory around about 2/3 of the Earth for its own hard water landing in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii about 90 minutes after launch.

This authorization applies to just this second attempt, and future launches will require more licensing.

Starship is SpaceX’s replacement for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Test launches will be initially from Texas, but SpaceX is building out the apparatus to support Starship launches from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A as well.

NASA has a vested interest in SpaceX achieving success with Starship as it has contracted with Musk’s company to be the human landing system for the Artemis program’s first attempt to return humans to the surface of the moon, a mission currently on NASA’s roadmap for December 2025.

SpaceX has to cycle through dozens of Starship launches, though, for what aims to eventually be the first completely reusable launch system with both the Super Heavy booster and Starship landing vertically.

The system brewing near South Florida is an area of low pressure that already has brought a flooding threat to the state with a flood watch up the coast from Miami to Volusia County as well as inland portions of Brevard and Volusia counties.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Marathon, Big Pine Key and Key Colony Beach through 7 a.m. Wednesday as bands moved across the state.

The heavy rains that have already dropped as much as 5 inches through Tuesday in some places could combine with king tides along the state’s southeast coast to further the flood threat. The National Weather Service in Miami said some areas of South Florida could see well over 10 inches of rain through Thursday.

For Central Florida, the NWS in Melbourne said the region could see 20-25 mph winds with gusts up to 40 mph along the coast and inland to about Interstate 95 and 15-20 mph winds with 30 mph gusts across the rest of east Central Florida. A wind advisory is in place through at least Thursday afternoon.

Coastal erosion is expected to continue as well with 6- to 9-foot large breaking waves, rough surf and wave runup to the dune line at high tide. Coastal Volusia is still recovering from severe erosion from hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022.

“During yesterday morning`s high tide, many beaches were completely covered by surf to the seawall and dunes, and waves were running up into access roads and walkways,” NWS forecasters said.

11/15 7AM Heavy Rainfall Threat Update: Confidence continues to increase regarding the potential for heavy rain beginning later this morning and continuing into Thursday.
Here are the latest probabilities in terms of rainfall amounts across the area. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/f3kXwXuIIm

— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) November 15, 2023

It’s forecast to move to the northeast near the Bahamas and offshore of the U.S. East Coast into the weekend.

“Although development into a tropical cyclone appears unlikely, this system is expected to produce gusty winds and heavy rains across portions of southern Florida, the Florida Keys and the Bahamas during the next couple of days,” forecasters said.

The NHC gives it a 10% chance to develop in the next two to seven days.

In the southwestern Caribbean, the NHC has dialed back slightly the prediction of development of a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms from a broad trough of low pressure.

“Environmental conditions appear marginally conducive for development of this system, and a tropical depression could form late this week while the system begins moving northeastward across the western and central portions of the Caribbean Sea,” forecasters said.

It could threaten Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the coming days, the NHC warned.

“Regardless of development, this system has the potential to produce heavy rains over portions of the Caribbean coast of Central America and the Greater Antilles through the end of this week,” forecasters said.

The NHC gives it a 40% chance to develop in the next two days and 50% chance in the next seven.

The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through Nov. 30, has already produced 21 official systems and 19 named storms. The final available names from the year’s initial 21-name list are Vince and Whitney.

In its tropical outlook on Tuesday, the NHC said a broad trough of low pressure in the southwestern Caribbean Sea is producing a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms.

“Environmental conditions appear conducive for development of this system, and a tropical depression is likely to form during the latter part of the week while moving northeastward across the western and central portions of the Caribbean Sea,” forecasters said.

The system could bring rough weather to Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, the NHC warned.

“Regardless of development, this system has the potential to produce heavy rains over portions of the Caribbean, coast of Central America and the Greater Antilles through the end of this week,” forecasters said.

The NHC gives the system a 20% chance to develop in the next two days and 70% in the next seven.

1 pm EST Nov. 14: A broad area of low pressure is expected to form over the SW Caribbean by Thursday and has a high chance of becoming a tropical depression late this week. Interests in the Greater Antilles should monitor this system's progress.https://t.co/DboWSR4Ct1 pic.twitter.com/9OnyMENUPx

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) November 14, 2023

The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season has had 21 official systems, including an unnamed subtropical storm in January and 20 more since the official start of the six-monthlong season that began on June 1.

Of those, 19 have gained at least tropical storm status and taken names from the 21-letter list provided by the World Meteorological Organization, which skips the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z. The next name on the list is Vince.

The end of hurricane season is Nov. 30, but any system that develops in December would also be included in the 2023 tally.

It gave it a makeover complete with new floors and a ceiling with about 600 bubble carvings to give it that “under the sea” feeling, said Sharon Siskie, senior vice president and general manager for the line, during an opening ceremony for it on Monday.

“When we stand here today, and we look at the space and we think back to when we initially did our walkthrough, and we leverage the imagination of the teams to envision what it would be able to become, we had that discussion of how do you really elevate the brand presence and really make this a Disney experience,” she said,

The Disney touches range from cartoonish murals, including a black-and-white homage to Steamboat Willie on the walk-in from the parking garage to the terminal adorned wall-to-wall with characters from “Finding Nemo.”

The 104,000-square-foot terminal is cavernous, unlike the line’s terminal at Port Canaveral, but with Disney’s expertise in managing lines, it should make for a quick onboard experience for when Disney Dream arrives for its first sailing on Nov. 20.

With a week before its arrival, officials with the cruise line, the port and Broward County government were on hand to dedicate the space, which has seen little use since the port reacquired it from Carnival Corp. in a pandemic-related deal.

“This is a complete reimagineering and rebranding,” said Port Everglades CEO and port director Jonathan Daniels. “It’s a different agreement than any agreement that we’ve had with any of the any of the lines in the past. … Because of all the intellectual property that they have in here — the branding that has occurred — this is Disney’s terminal.”

The line had been sailing from PortMiami to some degree since 2012, but only seasonally, and with Disney Dream’s four- and five-night sailings that will give way to Disney Magic in May doing three-, four and five-night sailings, it marks the beginning of a 15-year commitment to Port Everglades that guarantees 10.6 million passengers over the term of the lease.

That means both year-round sailings through 2024, but a second ship sailing seasonally beginning in 2025. The port and Disney can agree to extend the lease in five-year increments for an additional 15 years as well, bringing in another 11.25 million passengers.

It’s also going to be the first port with regular visits starting next summer to the line’s new private Bahamas destination, Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point on the southern end of Eleuthera. Port Canaveral-based ships won’t get regular visits there until fall of next year.

Benefiting from a $120 million investment made before the pandemic, the terminal’s parking garage pairs up with the adjacent Cruise Terminal 2 used by Princess Cruises so that combined they have more than 1,800 spaces, sitting adjacent to the Broward County Convention Center and close to the hotels and restaurants just north of the port.

That includes automated walkways and the promise of complete coverage from garage to ship to shield travelers from Florida’s heat and inclement weather.

The port has its own drive-in market but also pulls travelers from the nearby Fort Lauderdale International Airport and from Miami and West Palm’s airports to a smaller degree. That also means some of the cruisers are shuttling in from nearby hotels, so the parking impact remains to be seen, Daniels said.

“The one thing we’re not going to do is we’re not going to go out there and build a massive 1,500-car, 2,000-car parking garage without seeing what this year looks like,” he said. “If we need another one, it’s because we’re in a great position. We’ll know some of the pain and pressure points this year.”

For Disney, the market is one ripe for new business, not just those with families, but the real adult market craving a Disney experience, Siskie said.

“We’re bringing the product closer to home right on the back door of guests here who, you know may not get all the way to Orlando as often as they might like,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for them to have a little Disney fix.”

And the line is leaning on the port’s backyard of Fort Lauderdale and the greater Broward County area with its own unique spillover benefits.

“We did like the location,” she said. “Port Everglades in general, there are things that we really did like a lot about it. … Fabulous beaches … restaurants, just a great overall place for guests to come to take a Disney cruise. So we started there and we said, ‘Can this be a really good fit for our guests?’ And we said, ‘Yeah, we think it can.'”

A Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:08 p.m., sending up a pair of satellites for Luxembourg-based SES.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/7xuJd88TOZ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 12, 2023

This is the third time SpaceX has sent up a pair of SES’s O3b mPOWER satellites, which are headed for medium-Earth orbit. They are part of SES’s goal of sending up 11 such satellites to increase connectivity to remote places.

The “O3b” is in reference to the “other 3 billion” referring to the Earth’s population without access to the infrastructure found in more metropolitan areas. The mPOWER satellites are the next generation of an existing constellation of MEO satellites for SES already used by companies such as Princess Cruises.

This was the ninth flight for the first-stage booster, which landed downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

It marked the 63rd rocket launch in 2023 on the Space Coast, with SpaceX flying all but four of those. SpaceX has also flown 24 missions from California for the year, and has now had 83 successful orbital launches for the year.

In April, it attempted to fly to orbit its Starship and Super Heavy from its Boca Chica, Texas site Starbase for the first time, but problems with stage separation before reaching orbital altitude forced SpaceX to have the rocket self destruct over the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX still awaits final approval to fly from the Federal Aviation Administration, but its second attempt for the orbital test flight has a target to launch on Friday, according to the company’s website.

Starship preparing to launch as early as November 17, pending final regulatory approval → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK pic.twitter.com/qRKv9ugWsR

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2023

SpaceX will stream the test about 30 minutes before liftoff.

“As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change,” the company stated.

Starship is the replacement rocket for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, and despite not making it to orbit, became the most powerful rocket to make it off the launch pad with more than 17 million pounds of thrust at liftoff during the April 20 attempt.

If it makes it orbit on this second attempt, it would surpass the record-holding power generated by NASA’s Space Launch System during its November 2022 launch on the Artemis I mission, which topped 8.8. million pounds of thrust.

“There are really a tremendous number of changes between the last Starship flight and this one, well over 1,000,” Musk said in a June interview. “I think the probability of this next flight working, you know getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one.”

Plans for this attempt still look to have Starship to climb to between 93 and 155 miles during a trip that will take it two-thirds of the way around the Earth for a hard splashdown near Hawaii.

The April attempt saw the rocket, using a combined propellant of liquid methane and liquid oxygen, make it through what’s called Max Q, the area where the craft endures maximum dynamic pressure, and it did achieve speeds up to 1,340 mph.

Had all gone well, both the booster and Starship were to have separated and each made their own hard water landings, with the booster splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship in the Pacific Ocean after its flight.

The launch system in Texas, and one that will eventually be built at Kennedy Space Center, is designed so that eventually the Super Heavy booster would return to the 469-foot-tall launch integration tower often referred to as “Mechazilla,” with a landing achieved with the aid of two pivoting metal arms called the “chopsticks.”

The Starship spacecraft would make a vertical landing at its destination as well, which would make the combination the first fully reusable rocket in the industry.

NASA has been waiting on SpaceX’s Starship as it has contracted with Musk’s company to provide a working version for its astronauts in the Artemis program to use it as their ride down to the surface of the moon.

That mission is currently slotted for the Artemis III flight, no earlier than December 2025, but that would require for SpaceX to get its Starship up and running and perform a successful uncrewed landing on the moon before NASA would let its astronauts on board.

For SpaceX, plans are to fly dozens if not more than 100 operational launches of Starship before it lets any humans on board, but it has at least three commercial human spaceflight missions already lined up in addition to the NASA mission.

Check back for the latest information on upcoming launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

By The Numbers:

63 Space Coast launches in 2023 (updated Nov. 12) | 51 from Cape Canaveral, 12 from KSC | 59 from SpaceX (55 Falcon 9s, 4 Falcon Heavy), 3 from United Launch Alliance (1 Delta IV Heavy, 2 Atlas V), 1 from Relativity Space | 3 human spaceflights (Crew-6, Ax-2, Crew-7)

Details on past launches can be found at the end of file.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 9: SpaceX Falcon 9 with cargo Dragon on the CRS-29 mission to carry supplies to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-B at 8:28 p.m. It’s the 29th resupply mission for SpaceX with its cargo Dragon filled with 6,500 pounds of supplies for the Expedition 70 crew with an expected arrival to the ISS about 5:20 a.m. Saturday. It includes NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) science experiment to measure atmospheric gravity waves and how it could affect Earth’s climate and the Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T), a technology demonstration for laser communications among the ISS, an orbiting relay satellite and a ground-based observatory on Earth. The first-stage booster flew for the second time and landed back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Nov. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES O3b mPOWER mission to medium-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40  at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:08 p.m. First stage made its 9th flight with a recovery landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

DECEMBER

Dec. 24 (Delayed from May 4): First-ever launch of United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on Certification-1 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 1:49 a.m. Slated to carry commercial company Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander to the moon. Also flying will be another human remains payload for Celestis Inc.,, this time brining the ashes of more than 150 people to space including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan who played “Scotty” on the TV series. Read more.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2023

TBD, 4th quarter of 2023: SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A on USSF-52, the third mission for the Space Force. The side boosters will be flying for the fifth time, previously used on the Psyche mission, two Space Force missions and one commercial flight with plans for another double land landing at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2024

Jan. 12 (Delayed from Nov. 14): A SpaceX Falcon 9 with the Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar lander from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 11 p.m. This could end up being the first NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission to land on the moon, depending on launch of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander awaiting a flight on the Vulcan Centaur. The IM-1 is a suite of five robotic NASA payloads sent to the moon’s surface as part of a CLPS delivery. Landing would take place weeks after launch.

No earlier than January 2024: Axiom Space was awarded the right to fly Axiom-3. No crew has been announced, but NASA requires it to be commanded by a former NASA astronaut with experience on the space station such as the Ax-1 and Ax-2 commanders. The commercial flight brings four crew for a short stay on the ISS. This mission is targeting a 14-day stay, and will fly up with one of the SpaceX Crew Dragons. The launch date is dependent on spacecraft traffic to the ISS and in-orbit activity planning and constraints that have to be coordinated with NASA.

January 2024: NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol Cloud Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9. PACE will advance the assessment of ocean health by measuring the distribution of phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that sustain the marine food web.

No earlier than mid-February 2024: SpaceX Crew-8 on Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A. It’s the eighth SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Its four crew members are NASA astronauts Commander Matthew Dominick, Pilot Michael Barratt, Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps and  Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin.

TBD, early 2024: United Launch Alliance Atlas V on USSF 51 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

TBD, 1st quarter of 2024 (Delayed from summer 2023): Polaris Dawn mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 topped with the Crew Dragon Resilience from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. The private orbital mission will bring billionaire Jared Isaacman to space for a second time after 2021′s Inspiration4 mission. It’s the first of up to three planned Polaris missions, and will feature a tethered spacewalk. Also flying are Scott Poteet, given the title of mission pilot, specialist Sarah Gillis, and specialist and medical officer Anna Menon. Both Gillis and Menon are SpaceX employees. Read more.

TBD 1st quarter of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on Sierra Space Dream Chaser test flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41. Read more.

No earlier than mid-April 2024 (Delayed from July 21): Boeing CST-100 Starliner atop United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station followed by a parachute-and -irbag-assisted ground landing in the desert of the western United States. Read more.

TBD, delayed from December 2023: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on the NG-20 mission to resupply the International Space Station. This will be the first ISS launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40, which SpaceX has been redeveloping to support future crewed missions in addition to KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. This is the first of at least three SpaceX flights of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft as part of a deal after its 10-year run of launches atop Antares rockets ended with the Aug. 1 launch from Wallops Island, Virginia because of issues with Russian- and Ukrainian-made rocket engines and first stage parts that are being redeveloped with Firefly Aerospace for a future Antares rocket not expected until at least 2025.

TBD, 2nd quarter of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on first of three planned Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

No earlier than mid-August 2024: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Crew-9 mission. Its crew of four has yet to be announced.

No earlier than October 2024: Axiom Space was awarded the right to fly Axiom-4. No crew has been announced, but NASA requires it to be commanded by a former NASA astronaut with experience on the space station such as the Ax-1 and Ax-2 commanders. The commercial flight brings four crew for a short stay on the ISS. This mission is targeting a 14-day stay, and will fly up with one of the SpaceX Crew Dragons. The launch date is dependent on spacecraft traffic to the ISS and in-orbit activity planning and constraints that have to be coordinated with NASA.

TBD, second half of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on second of three planned Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

TBD, second half of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on third of three planned Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

November 2024: NASA Artemis II mission to send four crew on 8-day orbital mission to the moon from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. Read more.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2025

TBD, no earlier than early 2025: Boeing Starliner-1 on ULA Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 41. NASA astronauts Scott Tingle and Mike Fincke will be commander and pilot, respectively. This Starliner previously flew on Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 mission. Depending on data from CFT mission, this could become SpaceX Crew-10 mission.

No earlier than December 2025: NASA Artemis III mission to send four crew on lunar landing mission to the moon from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. Read more.

ALREADY LAUNCHED IN 2023

Jan. 3: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter-6 mission carrying 114 payloads for a variety of customers blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:56 a.m. Read more.

Jan. 9: A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off carrying 40 satellites for OneWeb at 11:50 p.m. Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Read more.

Jan. 15: The fifth-ever flight of SpaceX’s powerhouse Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off at 5:56 p.m. from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A on a mission for the Space Force dubbed USSF-67. Read more.

Jan. 18: A SpaceX Falcon 9 on the GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission for the Space Force rose through the pink, orange and blue horizon at 7:24 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Read more.

Jan. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 5-2 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launched at 4:32 a.m. sending up 56 Starlink satellites. Read more.

Feb. 2: Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-3 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 2:43 a.m. 200th successful flight of Falcon 9 on mission to send up 53 Starlink satellites. Read more.

Feb. 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Amazonas-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 lifted off at 8:32 p.m. Payload is communications satellite for Hispasat known also as the Amazonas Nexus. Read more.

Feb. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-4 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 launched 55 Starlink satellites at 12:10 a.m. This set a then-record turnaround between launches from the same pad for SpaceX coming just five days, three hours, and 38 minutes since the Feb. 6 launch. Read more.

Feb. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Inmarsat’s I-6 F2 satellite launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:59 p.m. The second of six planned communication satellite launches, the first of which came in 2021 with the final coming by 2025. Read more.

Feb. 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-1 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:13 p.m. carrying 21 of the second-generation Starlink satellites. Read more.

March 2: Crew-6 mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching Crew Dragon Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A at 12:34 a.m. A Feb. 27 attempt was scrubbed with less than three minutes before liftoff. Flying were NASA astronauts mission commander Stephen Bowen and pilot Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, heading to the International Space Station for around a six-month stay. It’s the sixth SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Read more.

March 9: A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off carrying 40 satellites for OneWeb launched at 2:13 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. The first-stage booster flew for the 13th time landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

March 14: After arrival of Crew-6 and departure of Crew-5 to make room for a cargo Dragon, SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a cargo Dragon spacecraft on CRS-27, the 27th resupply mission to the International Space Station from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 8:30 p.m. Read more.

March 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES 18 and 19 mission, a pair of communication satellites set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Set a record for SpaceX mission turnaround with launch only four hours and 17 minutes after a Starlink launch from California. Read more.

March 22: Relativity Space Terran-1, a 3D-printed rocket awaiting company’s first-ever launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 16 at 11:25 p.m. While first stage successfully separated, the second stage engine did not get it into orbit. Read more.

March 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-5 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:43 a.m. carrying 56 Starlink satellites to orbit. The booster made its 10th flight. Read more.

March 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launched at 4:01 p.m. The booster making its fourth flight landed on Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

April 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Intelsat 40e mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting 12:30 a.m., the opening of a 119-minute launch window that runs until 2:29 a.m. Space Launch Delta 45′s weather squadron gives forecasts a 90% chance for good conditions early Friday, and 85% chance in event of 24-hour delay. Read more.

April 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on Starlink 6-2 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station targeting 9:48 a.m. during a launch window that runs from 8:18 a.m.-Noon. The Space Launch Delta 45 weather squadron forecast calls for 90% chance of good conditions and 80% chance in event of a 24-hour delay. The first-stage booster is making its eighth flight and SpaceX will attempt its recovery again on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

April 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES 03b mPOWER-B mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. SLD 45′s weather squadron puts launch window from 5:12-6:40 p.m. with a forecast predicting only 20% chance for good conditions, up to 30% chance in event of 24-hour delay. Read more.

April 30: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of ViaSat-3 Americas’ communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A at 8:26 p.m. All three boosters were expended, so no sonic boom landings. Also flying were payloads for Astranis Space Technologies and Gravity Space headed for geostationary orbits. It’s the sixth-ever Falcon Heavy launch. The launch pad endured a lightning strike on April 27, but SpaceX said the rocket was healthy for the attempt. Read more.

May 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 56 Starlink satellites at 3:31 a.m. The first-stage booster making its eighth flight was recovered once again on the droneship called A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

May 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launnched at 1:03 a.m. Read more.

May 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:19 a.m. carrying 22 second-gen Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made its fifth flight and landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in Atlantic. Read more.

May 21: Axiom 2 mission with four private passengers launched to the International Space Station for an eight-day visit flying on a SpaceX Falcon 9 topped with Crew Dragon Freedom from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 5:37 p.m.  The first-stage booster flew for the first time with a return to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. This is only the second crewed mission from the U.S. in 2023 following March’s Crew-6 mission. The second Axiom Space private mission to the International Space Station following 2022′s Axiom 1 mission. Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is the mission commander with aviator John Shoffner as pilot and two mission specialist seats paid for by the Saudi Space Commission, Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali AlQarni. Read more.

May 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the ArabSat BADR-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:30 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 14th flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-4 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 22 second-generation Starlink satellites at 8:20 a.m. The first-stage booster made its third flight and was able to land down range on droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch came 13 years to the day since the first Falcon 9 launch in 2010. It was the 229th attempt of a Falcon 9 launch with 228 of the 229 successful. Read more.

June 5 (Delayed from June 3, 4): SpaceX Falcon 9 on CRS-28 launched a cargo Dragon spacecraft, the 28th resupply mission to the International Space Station from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at at 11:47 a.m. The first-stage booster made its fifth flight and SpaceX recovered it downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. This is the fourth flight of the crew Dragon, which will be bring up nearly 7,000 pounds of supplies, dock to the station 41 hours after launch and remain on the station for three weeks. Read more.

June 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-11 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 53 of the company’s internet satellites at 3:10 a.m.  The first stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

June 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the PSN MSF mission to launch the Satria communications satellite for the Indonesian government and PSN, an Indonesian satellite operator. This satellite will provide broadband internet and communications capability for public use facilities in Indonesia’s rural regions. Liftoff was at 6:21 p.m. with the first-stage booster making its 12th flight and once again landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 22: United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy on NROL-68 for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command and the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37B lifted off at 5:18 a.m. This was the second-to-last Delta IV Heavy launch with the final one expected in 2024. Read more.

June 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 5-12 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 carrying 56 Starlink satellites at 11:35 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time and landed on a droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

July 1: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the ESA Euclid space telescope mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:12 a.m. The European Space Agency telescope is designed to make a 3D map of the universe by looking at billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away across one third of the sky. Read more.

July 9: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-5 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:58 p.m. The booster made a record 16th flight and was recovered again downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-15 mission with 54 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:50 p.m. (early Friday scrubbed 40 seconds before launch, and early Saturday option passed over) Booster made a record-tying 16th fligh landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

July 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:50 p.m. carrying 22 of its v2 mini Starlink satellites. The booster flew for the sixth time and made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:01 a.m. with 22 Starlink satellites. Booster flew for the 15th time including crewed launches Inspiration4 and Ax-1, and made recovery landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. The launch set a record for turnaround time for the company from a single launch pad coming four days, three hours, and 11 minutes since the July 23 launch. The previous record was set from Feb. 6-12 at five days, three hours, and 38 minutes. Read more.

July 28: SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A that launched a telecom satellite for Hughes Network Systems called the Jupiter 3 EchoStar XXIV at 11:04 p.m. The two side boosters were recovered at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was the third Falcon Heavy launch of 2023 and seventh overall. Read more.

Aug. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Intelsat G-37 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1 a.m. The first-stage booster made its sixth flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Aug. 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:41 p.m. with 22 Starlink V2 minis. The first-stage booster made its fourth flight with another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. The turnaround time between the Aug. 3 Intelsat G-37 mission and this mission broke SpaceX’s previous record for time between launches from a single launch pad. Previous record was from July 24-28 with a turnaround of four days, three hours, and 11 minutes. This one came in at three days, 21 hours, 41 minutes. Read more.

Aug. 11: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-9 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:17 a.m. Payload is 22 of the V2 mini Starlink satellites. First-stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

Aug. 16: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 22 of the V2 mini Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made its 13th flight and SpaceX was able to recover it again on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

Aug. 26: SpaceX Crew-7 mission on a Falcon 9 launching the Crew Dragon Endurance from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A lifted off at 3:27 a.m. liftoff. It’s the seventh SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Flying are NASA astronaut and mission commander Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut and pilot Andreas Mogensen, mission specialist JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and mission specialist Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov. This will be Endurance’s third spaceflight after having been used on the Crew-3 and Crew-5 missions. The launch will use a new first-stage booster. The crew will arrive at 8:50 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 27. with hatch opening about two hours later. It will stay docked about 190 days. Read more.

Aug. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-11 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:05 p.m. with 22 Starlink satellites. The first stage flew for the third time and landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Aug. 31: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-13 mission carrying 22 of the v2 Starlink minis from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:21 p.m. It was SpaceX’s ninth launch of the calendar month matching the record nine launches it had in May. It was the company’s 60th orbital launch of the year. The first-stage booster flew for the seventh time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-12 mission carrying 21 of the v2 Starlink minis from Kennedy Space Center’s Space Launch Complex 39-A at 10:47 p.m. It marked the 62nd SpaceX orbital launch in 2023 besting the 61 launches the company performed in 2022. The first-stage booster on the flight made its 10th launch and was able to make its recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-14 mission carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 took off at 11:12 p.m. The first-stage booster made its seventh flight with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 10 (delayed from Aug. 29): United Launch Alliance Atlas V on the SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 for the National Reconnaissance Office and Space Force from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 8:47 a.m.. Delayed because of Tropical Storm Idalia. This was the second ULA launch of 2023. SILENTBARKER’s classified mission is to improve space domain awareness to support national security and provide intelligence data to U.S. senior policy makers, the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. It will provide the capability to search, detect and track objects from space-based sensors for timely custody and event detection. Read more.

Sept. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-16 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launching at 11:38 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission made its fifth flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. It marked SpaceX’s 65th orbital launch of the year including missions from Canaveral, KSC and California. Read more.

Sept. 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-17 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launching at 11:38 p.m. This was a record reuse flight for the first-stage booster flying for a 17th time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Short Fall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept.23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-18 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:38 p.m. The first-stage booster made a record-tying 17th flight with a recovery landing down range on droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept.29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-19 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10 p.m. The booster on this flight made its 10th launch having flown on CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19 and five Starlink missions. It made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 69th launch of the year, its 49th from the Space Coast, 39th from Cape Canaveral and the other 10 from KSC. With only three non-SpaceX flights this year, it was the Space Coast’s 52nd overall. Read more.

Oct. 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-21 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:36 a.m.  The booster made its eighth flight with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 70th launch of the year, its 50th from the Space Coast, 40th from Cape Canaveral. With only three non-SpaceX flights this year, it is the Space Coast’s 53rd overall. Read more.

Oct. 6: United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 2:06 p.m. Payload was Amazon’s two test Project Kuiper satellites that were set to fly on ULA’s first Vulcan Centaur rocket, but switched to one of the nine Atlas rockets Amazon had previously purchased from ULA as Vulcan had been delayed to no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2023. Read more.

Oct. 13 (Delayed from Oct. 12): A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched NASA’s Psyche probe into space launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A at 10:19 a.m. The probe was delayed from 2022, and headed for the asteroid Psyche, using a Mars-gravity assist and not arriving until August 2029. Psyche is a nickel-iron core asteroid that orbits the sun beyond Mars anywhere from 235 million to 309 million miles away. The two side boosters returned for a land landing at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Read more.

Oct. 13 (Delayed from Oct. 8): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-22 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:01 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission is making its 14th flight, and made another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas down range in the Atlantic. The launch came 8 hours and 42 minutes after the Falcon Heavy launch from nearby KSC earlier in the day. Read more.

Oct. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-23 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:36 p.m. This is the first-stage booster made its 16th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. This marked the Space Coasts’ 57th launch of the year, which matched the total it had in 2022. Read more.

Oct. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-24 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:17 p.m. The first-stage booster made its fourth flight with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This became the record 58th launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

Oct. 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-25 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:20 p.m. This was the 59th launch from the Space Coast for the year. The first-stage booster flew for the eighth time and made a  recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed down range in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-26 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:37 p.m. This was the 60th launch from the Space Coast for the year. The first-stage booster flew for a record 18th time and made a  recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed down range in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-27 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting 11:01 p.m. with seven backup options from 11:23 p.m. until 3 a.m. Wednesday and eight backups on Wednesday night from 11 p.m. through 2:58 a.m. Thursday. Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron gives the launch more than a 95% chance for good conditions, and 95% chance for good conditions in the event of a 24-hour delay. The first-stage booster is making its 11th flight with a target landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic. This would be the 61st launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

Follow Orlando Sentinel space coverage at Facebook.com/goforlaunchsentinel.

The 67,700-gross-ton, 1,200-guest ship that features 11 dining venues is the largest in the now seven-ship Oceania Cruises fleet, but only slightly over the line’s last two ships Marina and Riviera. A sister ship to Vista named Allura is due in 2025.

Oceania is the upper premium sister line to Norwegian Cruise Line and has looked to carve out a unique space focusing on both on-board offerings and destination excursions that cater to the gourmand while not growing too large for its target demographic.

“We really felt there was a huge space in between the premium brands who are actually moving more of mass market because they were building bigger ships — Celebrity, Holland America, Princess,” said cruise line President Frank A. Del Rio. “They left their old premium formats and started going more contemporary so we kind of snuck in between.”

Vista builds on the line’s prowess, once again relying on menus from famed French chef Jacques Pépin, who has been the line’s executive culinary director for two decades, but guests might be surprised to not find his signature restaurant Jacques on board in favor of a new concept called Ember.

“Jacques is not really out in a way because we are cautious of what we have done by introducing Ember,” said Oceania Cruises’ Senior Culinary Director Alexis Quaretti. Instead, his French dishes can be found in the main dining room with a different appetizer, entrée and dessert every day, enough for a 14-day sailing.

That opened up the space to create Ember, which is built to resemble the tasting room of a Napa Valley vineyard serving American farm-to-table fare including dishes conceived by Pépin.

“So, yes, it is a different atmosphere but definitely I love very much Ember, with its nice design, the wood effect, and at least we can still have some of the Jacques Pépin dishes on a daily basis in the main dining room,” Quaretti said.

Ember’s menu includes things like blackened crab cakes with corn salsa and tomato sauce; roasted beetroot salad with goat cheese, shallots, green beans and hazelnuts; porcini-dusted bone-in ribeye with foie gras-truffle demi-glace and breadcrumb-crusted tomato Provençale; and roasted apple tart with served with San Francisco favorite Humphry Slocombe-brand sweet summer corn ice cream.

Also lending her celebrity name to the ship is godmother Giada De Laurentiis, who has for now two signature dishes in the ship’s Italian offering Toscana as well as in the Grand Dining Room including her specialty of lemon spaghetti with jumbo shrimp.

Another new venue to Vista is the Aquamar Kitchen, a healthy concept that combines a family-style table setting that spills over into al fresco outdoor seating.

While it has make-your-own poke bowls and four kinds of avocado toast, there is plenty of indulgence to found within the menu as well such as the butternut squash soup, yellowfin tuna tacos with guacamole, crunchy chicken sandwich with chipotle mayo and the buffalo mozzarella tomato basil panini. Plus it has fresh juices and smoothies such as the spicy sweet “Pure Immunity,” which is OJ, ginger, turmeric and cayenne pepper.

The venue is packed during sailings as it offers a variety of options that set it apart from other lunch fare on board.

Another packed venue is the Baristas coffee bar now with its own bakery that serves up sweet and savory pastries throughout the day.

For those who enjoy learning the art of cooking, the ship offers the largest ever version of The Culinary Center, now with 24 individual cooking stations. For an extra cost, those on board can partake from dozens of new options pulling from a fleetwide library of more than 100 classes designed by the line’s culinary enrichment director and executive chef Kathryn Kelly.

Kelly introduced the kitchen on Oceania’s Marina, and it has since been on board Riviera and the new ships of sister cruise line Regent Seven Seas.

“It’s been an absolute joy ride to develop a program that guests come in — some of them are very talented home chefs, others have never picked up a knife — and have them tell our chefs that it was the experience of a lifetime.”

She says the classes have evolved just as those who have sailed.

“Ten to 15 years ago, when we were teaching cooking classes, we would get on a map and say, ‘Can I show you where you are? Do you even know what country you’re in? ‘ And now it’s not. It’s like, ‘There’s 17 cuisines in Italy. How are they different?’ So we’re seeing that kind of migration of sophistication in a lot of guests that is really rewarding for us as educators.”

Also key to Oceania’s footprint in the market are the unique culinary excursions offered at each of its ports of call, something Kelly and her team spend curating throughout the year.

Kelly said it’s designed to satisfy guests that are thinking, “‘I’ve been to Florence and I’ve checked all the boxes. Now what I want to do is something a little different.’ So they want to be able to go off and explore and maybe take that afternoon and find that special little restaurant somewhere. … I think that the trends that we’re seeing are a little bit more adventuresome, people are feeling a lot more comfortable about sort of street food or more authentic indigenous kinds of foods.”

The ship stands apart from its predecessors with the majority of the interior spaces created by Miami-based Studio DADO, which also had a hand in the new Prima class of ships for Norwegian and spaces on board Regent Seven Seas ships as well.

“What we have to really do is sort of look at trends beyond our design world,” said Studio DADO founding partner Greg Walton “One of the things we look at and we nickname it — we call we’re future casting. We look at all kinds of design, from fashion to automobile design, what’s happening in every kind of industry that involves design, even looking at things like small household appliances.”

The ship’s dining venues in particular each feature a design story to be discovered. The Polo Club steakhouse, for instance, pulls on the history of polo, and how it originated in Persia, and thus a tiled entryway that resembled a Persian rug gives way to the more traditional English stylings within. It even pulls color schemes that pay deference to Wellington, Florida, the polo capital of the South.

Ember, though, is among Walton’s favorite new space, including the faux flame created by a mix of light and mist that provides atmosphere to what feels like a California vineyard.

“The big accomplishment in this space is the fireplace, because there’s no such thing as an open flame on a ship, not even in the galleys,” he said. “At night when you come in here, there’s people who walk up” and place their hand near the flame. He said even the scent of wooden logs under the fireplace lends itself to the sensory experience.

The line often sails to a variety of destinations skipped over by major cruise lines, often built around culinary adventures.

The Miami-based will visit ports including San Juan, Puerto Rico; Gustavia, St. Barts; Roseau, Dominica; Bridgetown, Barbados; St. George’s, Grenada; Castries, St. Lucia; St. John’s, Antigua; Fort-de-France, Martinique in the Eastern Caribbean and Costa Maya, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; Colon, Panama; Santo Tomas, Guatemala; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica and Belize City, Belize in the Western Caribbean.

The ship begins its winter run Nov. 19 and runs through the end of March.

A Falcon 9 with an uncrewed cargo Dragon on the CRS-29 mission blasted off at 8:28 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/iQ8DH6XoU8

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 10, 2023

It was the second flight for the rocket’s first-stage booster, having in August launched Crew-7, the crew of which is still on the ISS. Its recovery landing came not at sea but back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Landing Zone 1, bringing the signature double sonic boom across parts of the Space Coast and Central Florida.

Orbiting the ISS are seven crew from the U.S., Japan, Denmark and Russia, and they’ll get a fresh food kit including oranges, apples, cherry tomatoes and carrots as well as two specialty cheese kits.

“And because we’re in the holiday season we’ve got some fun holiday treats for the crew like chocolate, pumpkin spice cappuccino, rice cakes, turkey, duck, quail, seafood, cranberry sauce and mochi,” said Dana Weigel, NASA’s deputy program manager for the International Space Station Program. “We’ve also got some pizza kits, which are a favorite for our crew, some hummus, salsa and olives.”

Among the 6,500 pounds of science and supplies headed to the International Space Station are major experiments to pave the way for deep-space communications NASA will need for its future crewed missions to Mars. Also on board is an Earth weather experiment to track atmospheric gravity waves and how it could affect Earth’s climate.

The laser communication technology demonstration, called ILLUMA-T, will use a terminal mounted on the exterior of the ISS to send infrared light to NASA’s orbiting Laser Communications Relay Demonstration satellite, which will then beam it to ground stations in Haleakala, Hawaii and Table Mountain, California.

“This is using optical communication to use lower power and smaller hardware for sending data packages back from the space station to Earth that are even larger and faster than our capabilities today,” said Meghan Everett, deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program Research Office. “This optical communication could hugely benefit the research that we are already doing on the space station by allowing our scientists to see the data faster, turn results around faster and even help our medical community by sending down medical packets of data.”

Laser-based communication is also being tested out on the recently launched Psyche probe as it heads out past Mars over the next several years.

The Earth science instrument flying up is NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment that will over two years look at the natural phenomenon that are small closer to the planet’s surface, but can grow exponentially as they climb in altitude, and even venture into space, something not easily observable by scientists on Earth.

“So gravity waves you can think of them as little pockets of energy that start off very small, where they start and are in lower atmospheres. And they grow as they get into higher atmospheres, and here at the higher atmospheres because they’re bigger we can measure them from the space station,” Everett said. “So we are hoping that by measuring these atmospheric, or these gravity waves, we can get a better idea of space weather which could impact climate change, or how winds in space affect our satellites.”

Among the more than 3,330 pounds of science equipment for more than 50 experiments flying up are ones that aim to improve water filtration in both space and back on Earth, a female reproductive health investigation that will fly up 40 rodents, 20 of which will make their way back down to Earth before the others for comparative studies, and a study that looks at how fluid moves through the respiratory tract.

This cargo Dragon is also making its second flight having also visited the ISS for CRS-26 in 2022. It’s slated to arrive around 5:20 a.m. Saturday docking autonomously to the space-facing port of the ISS Harmony module.

Dragon will spend about one month attached to the ISS before returning with about 3,800 pounds of cargo with a splashdown landing off the coast of Florida.

It marked the 62nd launch from the Space Coast among all companies in 2023, all but four of which have come from SpaceX. It’s also the 81st launch from SpaceX among its Florida and California pads having also flown 23 missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The 375-foot-tall crane arrived at the port as cargo from Germany in October adding another puzzle piece to Jeff Bezos’ plans to send up its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36.

“It’s now the highest point in our Port Canaveral as a whole,” said Port Canaveral CEO Capt. John Murray at a port authority meeting last month. “It’s a very, very tall crane and when you look across and you see our mobile harbor crane, it looks very small compared to this Blue Origin crane.”

It towers over the port’s 302-foot crane, both of which are at North Cargo Berth 6.

“That’s our crane and a significant milestone as we make rapid progress in New Glenn’s development,” said Blue Origin spokesperson Sara Blask in an email. “The crane will be used to offload New Glenn’s fully reusable first stage from our sea-based landing platform back onto shore in Port Canaveral.”

Those first-stage boosters will be 189 feet tall compared to the SpaceX boosters at about 135 feet.

The entirety of the New Glenn rocket will rise to 322 feet when it launches using seven of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines to give it nearly 3.9 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

While the company confirmed this month that it is still targeting 2024 for New Glenn’s first launch, that could slip into 2025 as Blue Origin has an engine supply problem to solve.

New Glenn needs seven working BE-4 engines, but it has to supply two engines for each of its customer United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket launches.

“We’ve delivered the first two flight engines and look forward to Vulcan’s first flight later this year,” Blask said.

The first ULA mission dubbed Certification-1 with a payload to send Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander to the moon is targeting a Dec. 24 liftoff, but it has a second certification flight in the first half of 2024 that would then allow it to fly several Department of Defense missions in 2024. Vulcan launches are also going to be relied on for dozens of launches it needs to complete before summer 2026 for Bezos’ company Amazon to launch thousands of its Project Kuiper satellites, in itself a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink internet service.

Dan Caughran, who runs the Rocket Factory in Decatur, decided to pop next door to Huntsville and check on the BE4 production ramp up at @blueorigin 's brand new, very modern, Rocket Engine Factory. Lots of WIP! And,… do I spy a #VulcanRocket CERT2 engine in final assembly? pic.twitter.com/MuFb23Mb8p

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) August 17, 2023

It’s unclear the pace at which Blue Origin can provide the required engines for ULA’s heavy spate of Vulcan flights, although at least one of the two engines for ULA’s second flight were in final assembly at Blue Origin’s Alabama facilities as of August. And while ULA only needs two per launch, Blue Origin has to satisfy its customer in addition to knocking out seven for its first flight.

When it does finally fly, and if it can stick the landing, the rocket is designed for at least 25 reflights, “aligned to our mission of radically reducing launch costs and increasing access to space,” Blask said.

It also will send up Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon and to support a human landing system featuring Blue Origin’s Blue Moon to support future Artemis missions for NASA.

Thanks to @BlueOrigin for an impressive tour! I got to see New Glenn manufacturing up close, which is an essential element of their Blue Moon human landing system architecture. pic.twitter.com/ZcMTOuPeHz

— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) August 23, 2023

Construction on the rockets continues at the Blue Origin factory next door to Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex on Merritt Island.

NASA Administrator recently toured the massive Space Coast facility as well as Blue Origin’s engine production operation in Huntsville, Alabama, to check up on progress toward Artemis V currently on NASA’s roadmap for 2029.

“Impressive visit to the [Blue Origin] Huntsville Engine Production Facility,” Nelson wrote on X in October. “NASA is proud to partner with Blue Origin, especially on the Blue Moon human landing system, which will help ensure a steady cadence of astronauts on the Moon to live and work before we venture to Mars.”

At the same time, preparation continues at the reconfigured Launch Complex 36 on the southern end of Cape Canaveral. The company has large enough facilities on site to process three New Glenn rockets at once.

Blue Origin took over the lease for LC-36 in 2015, investing about $1 billion in the pad site alone. It was previously used for government launches from 1962-2005 including lunar lander Surveyor 1 in 1967 and some of the Mariner probes.

When launches finally do occur, the first-stage booster will land about 620 miles downrange in the Atlantic on a landing platform, after which it will make its way back to Port Canaveral where Blue Origin’s new crane will be waiting to start the launch process all over again.

That’s the message port CEO Capt. John Murray delivered at the annual State of the Port presentation Wednesday. He said a long-term goal is adding a new terminal for the increasing demand of the cruise industry.

“We have six full cruise terminals now. And when I say full, they’re all busy,” Murray said. “Next year we have some schedules where we have a couple of our cruise terminals operating at five and six days a week with the ship alongside. … The challenge with that utilization is that doing any kind of maintenance even as simple as cleaning the terminals after a ship departs is difficult when you’ve got one coming again in 12 hours.”

It’s part of the increased management of limited resources for the port that opened 70 years ago.

“We are a very small port. Trying to get bigger is not easy for us,” Murray said. “It might have been easy back in 1953. But over 70 years, it’s one of the things that we’ve lost. We don’t have that opportunity just to keep going into the river and grow like we did at one time.”

With those limits, optimization and efficiency can only take the port so far.

“We need another cruise terminal. If we had it right now, we could fill it up,” Murray said. “We have significant demand from the cruise lines. … We need a seventh and we need it as soon as we can get it, but in all likelihood, it’s going to be a complicated task to get there.”

Port officials have already identified an area on the south side in the marina district for the project, and the goal is to redevelop the area that supports the smaller boats such as the commercial fishing industry.

The port also is feeling growing pains from an increase in space launches. Murray noted that as many as 10 more launch service providers could join the already busy fleet of SpaceX vessels at the port in the coming years. Port officials have been in talks with Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development agency, in seeking a potential alternative location for all of their ships to dock, with a report from Space Florida due by the end of the year.

“This port can’t handle everything,” Murray said. “We alone cannot accommodate the projected maritime demand. It’s just that simple.”

For fiscal year 2023 that ended Sept. 30, the port saw a record 6.8 million passengers across 906 ship calls. That built on a rebound in 2022 after the pandemic shutdown that saw Port Canaveral’s popularity shoot past PortMiami for the first time and become the No. 1 cruise port in the world. Miami may rebound for that title by the end of this year, but it won’t be for lack of business on Canaveral’s part.

The port hosted 13 ships over the busy winter season, the most ever. Next year is set to see even more, including the arrival before the end of the year of new brands Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises along with mainstays Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian and MSC Cruises.

The year’s parking became a tactical problem having hosted more than 840,000 vehicles over the year for cruise guests alone.

That pushed up plans for two new garages on the port’s north side as well as an expanded 1,000-car lot adjacent to Cruise Terminal 1, from where Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships sail.

“Our biggest innovation right now is our new parking system that we’re rolling out. Cruise guests at Port Canaveral all pay on arrival,” Murray said. “By paying on entry, it allows people to get to the car and then immediately flow out without having to stop.”

The parking projects are among $500 million in capital improvements slated for the next five years, something the port can afford after bringing in $191 million in operating revenue for 2023 and a projection of near similar revenue in 2024.

“Everything that we earn here we pumped back into it, and it just continues to get better and stronger,” Murray said. “I think that’s the important part, is that we put our money back into our infrastructure.”