SpaceX knocks out 1st launch of the year from Cape Canaveral

After managing 61 launches in 2022, SpaceX got its 2023 plans off to a booming start with a Space Coast launch and booster landing on Tuesday morning.

A 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.

The first-stage booster being used for a record-tying 15th time was able to return at Canaveral’s Launch Zone 1, bringing with it the rare double sonic boom that can be heard for miles around the landing site. SpaceX often relies on drone ships hundred of miles off the coast for its landings.

SpaceX’s Canaveral launch pad saw the most action last year with 30 launches followed by 18 at Kennedy Space Center and 13 at Vandenberg Space Force Base with 13. The 61 launches nearly doubled SpaceX’s 31 launches in 2021.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk stated last year that the company could see as many as 100 launches this year. That would include mostly Falcon 9 rockets, but also at least four of its powerful Falcon Heavy rockets including one targeting some time in January for the Space Force. It could also include multiple launches of its in-development Starship and Super Heavy from its test launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.

The company meanwhile continues to build out launch support structures for Starship operations at KSC as well, although it will be some time before the Space Coast sees a Starship launch attempt.

“I know there is a plan, I’ll call it development schedule, but it’s really a test and development program being run now out of Texas,” said Frank DiBello, President and CEO of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace economic development agency. “But SpaceX is moving at light speed to get the capability to conduct launch operations here. So we’re very optimistic that it won’t be long. The engines are known commodity, so what we’re talking about is the integration and full operation of the vehicle.”

For now, the Space Coast will continue to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches as well as the Atlas V and new Vulcan Centaur rockets from United Launch Alliance and the new Terran 1 3D-printed rocket from Relativity Space.

“There’s a lot happening. It’s a very exciting time for the industry and especially in this next decade,” DiBello said.

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