Busy day for SpaceX topped with launch from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX sent up its second Space Coast launch of the year on a mission to deliver more internet satellites for competitor OneWeb to cap off a day the company also had action in California, Texas and at the International Space Station.

“All four orbital launch pads fully loaded with rockets for the first time!” Elon Musk posted to Twitter.

A Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:50 p.m. Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. The first-stage booster flying for the second time was recovered at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1 south of the launch site.

It was setting up to be the second SpaceX launch of the day with a Starlink mission from California on tap to lift off less than an hour previous, but high winds forced that mission to delay at least one day. That launch to send up 51 more Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 4 East is now targeting 11:02 p.m. EST Tuesday.

It was still a busy day Monday for SpaceX which also rolled out a Falcon Heavy to Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad, stacked its prototype Starship with Super Heavy booster in Texas and began the return trip home from the International Space Station for its cargo Dragon spacecraft from the CRS-26 mission.

“Woo hoo. Station copies. Nice work Dragon team and Houston, we appreciate it,” exclaimed NASA astronaut Nicole Mann after being informed the spacecraft had left the ISS’ “keep-out sphere” after undocking. Mann, a member of Crew-5 and Expedition 68 on board had closed the hatch on Dragon, which had arrived to the station back on Nov. 27, and supervised its departure that occurred just after 5 p.m.

NASA and SpaceX now aim for a landing off of Florida’s coast either in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico targeting a 5:19 a.m. Wednesday splashdown.

Dragon is bringing back about 4,400 pounds of supplies and experiments, which will be transported after landing to Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility.

Meanwhile, in Texas, the company stacked Starship 24 atop the Super Heavy Booster 7 as SpaceX continues its efforts to prepare for what would be the first orbital flight for the massive rocket.

Replying this week on his Twitter account about speculation of when SpaceX expects to launch the mission, Elon Musk said, “We have a real shot at late February. March launch attempt appears highly likely.”

SpaceX was also busy at its second Florida launch site preparing Falcon Heavy at KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. The heavy-lift rocket that can produce 5.1 million pounds of thrust on liftoff left the hangar ahead of the USSF-67 mission for the Space Force.

A target launch date has not been confirmed by SpaceX, but the booster that landed at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1 on the OneWeb flight will have to be removed before the attempt since SpaceX plans to use both Landing Zone 1 and 2 to recover two of the three boosters used on the Falcon Heavy. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex had posted last week a viewing opportunity for that launch as early as Thursday, but that could be pushed.

But the end of the work day culminated in the OneWeb launch from Canaveral.

It marked 201 successful launches with SpaceX knocking out 195 of 196 orbital attempts for the Falcon 9 since its first launch June 4, 2010. The Falcon 1 made two successful orbital launches with one each in 2008 and 2009, and the Falcon Heavy has flown four times since its debut in 2018.

Nearly half of the 201 SpaceX launches have come in just the last two years with 31 launches in 2021 and 61 in 2022. Elon Musk has said the company could come close to 100 launches in 2023.

The company has also recovered 162 of its first-stage boosters from those flights, reusing them 137 times.

This is the second batch of British company OneWeb satellites being launched by SpaceX, which has its own internet constellation Starlink. Subsidiary OneWeb Satellites actually builds the satellites in partnership with Airbus at a facility in Brevard County that opened in 2019.

OneWeb shifted plans in 2022 to get launch assists from both SpaceX and India’s space agency after a contract to launch on Russian rockets was put into disarray following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This launch marks the 16th OneWeb launch to date with 40 more low-latency broadband communication satellites as part of the company’s plans for an array of 648 in orbit. SpaceX’s last launch in early December also flew up 40 to orbit. With Monday’s launch, that brings OneWeb’s total to 542.

In comparison, SpaceX has already sent up more than 3,600 of its Starlink satellites, part of an updated license that allows up to 7.500. Amazon has its own internet constellation planned as well called Project Kuiper that looks to send up 3,236 satellites by 2029.

OneWeb’s constellation is already active in Alaska, Canada, the United Kingdom, Greenland and the wider Arctic area.

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