SpaceX is picking up its launch pace in August with its fourth launch in just over a week, sending up another Starlink mission from the Space Coast.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 of the company’s internet satellites lifted off at 1:17 a.m. Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 after weather issues delayed several opportunities earlier Thursday.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/hyr81mdZTU
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 11, 2023
The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time and made its recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/YJadybqd9L
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 11, 2023
It’s another quick turnaround for the Cape Canaveral pad, which saw SpaceX set a record of three days, 21 hours and 41 minutes between launches from Aug. 3-6. This mission marks the third launch from the pad in just over eight days and seventh since one month ago. SpaceX also managed a launch from California’s Vandenburg Space Force Base on Tuesday.
This marks the 31st launch from Canaveral’s SLC-40 in 2023 while SpaceX has launched another eight times from neighboring Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A.
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It also makes this the 41st Space Coast launch of the year, with all but two coming from SpaceX. It also marks the 55th for Elon Musk’s company among its Florida and California operations, not including the lone Starship and Super Heavy attempt from Texas that ended with that rocket’s destruction about four minutes into flight. At the beginning of the year, Musk said the company might fly as many as 100 orbital missions.
That includes a record nine launches in a single month that came in May for the company, although with the planned Crew-7 launch from KSC later this month, there is a chance August could equal or surpass that number if the Canaveral launch pace keeps its current rate.
This marks the 254th successful orbital flight since the first Falcon 1 launch in 2008 with the 216th recovery and 189th reflight of a booster among its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
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