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SpaceX pushes through another midnight launch from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX passed by a pair of launch windows including a scrub 40 seconds before liftoff early Friday, but was able to finally send up a Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station just before midnight Saturday.

A Falcon 9 carrying 54 more of the company’s internet satellites lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:50 p.m.

Falcon 9 launches 54 @Starlink satellites from SLC-40 in Florida pic.twitter.com/jI2dlX6kqt

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 16, 2023

The booster for this mission joined the one used last Sunday as a record holder, flying for the 16th time and once making a successful recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

SpaceX midnight launch from Cape Canaveral sets booster record

Friday’s attempt at 12:45 a.m. would have been only four days and 47 minutes since Sunday’s launch and would have set a record between launches from the same pad, but mission control called “hold, hold, hold” with 40 seconds left in the countdown clock. SpaceX then geared up for another attempt early Saturday that would have also broken the record, but opted to move the attempt to late Saturday instead.

While it didn’t break the record, it still marked turnaround of just under six days since last Sunday’s launch from SLC 40. The existing record of five days, three hours and 38 minutes was set in February.

The launch was the 35th from the Space Coast in 2023, which is on pace to break its record of 57 launches in 2022 among the pads at Canaveral and neighboring Kennedy Space Center.

Halfway through 2023 and we're proud to announce that we're on track to surpass last year's record. With 32 successful launches under our belt, it's clear that the sky is not our limit.

🎥 Senior Airman Samuel Becker, Bobby Foreman

32 Launches as of June 2023. pic.twitter.com/UGeuTstyyc

— Space Launch Delta 45 (@SLDelta45) July 13, 2023

The two facilities hosted launches from SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Astra Space and NASA’s Space Launch System last year. It’s on pace for 64 launches for 2023 with 32 of the 34 so far coming from SpaceX. The other pair came from startup Relativity Space with its 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket in March and last month’s ULA launch of the penultimate Delta IV Heavy.

Elon Musk’s company has also been busy on the West Coast, so with this launch, Canaveral, KSC and Vandenberg Space Force Base has made 47 orbital launches so far among its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

This is separate from its attempt to launch the massive Starship and Super Heavy from its Boca Chica, Texas facility Starbase.

For the year, Musk had said SpaceX could hit 100, with the majority coming from Cape Canaveral and KSC.

Most have been in support of the growing Starlink constellation, which with this batch has topped 4,800 launched over 94 missions since the first operational deployment in 2019, according to statistics tracked by astronomer Jonathan McDowell. The Federal Communications Commission last year upped SpaceX’s license to allow for up to 7,500.

This launch marks the final batch of its version 1.5 Starlinks, with more recent launches sending up larger version 2 satellites, which are a precursor to even larger designs meant to fly on Starship once it’s operational. The 1.5 versions make up more than 1/3 of the existing constellation.

Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/huAzkLXlEA

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 16, 2023

With this launch, SpaceX has flown Falcon 9 successfully 238 times since 2010 with its lone in-flight failure back in 2015. It has also managed six Falcon Heavy launches since 2018 including two so far this year. The third is coming up targeting late July.

So with its initial two Falcon 1 launches in 2008 and 2009, SpaceX has had 246 successful orbital missions. And its booster program has seen 207 recoveries among Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets allowing for 180 reflights.