SpaceX notched another Starlink launch on its rocketry belt from Cape Canaveral on Friday night, but fellow rocket company United Launch Alliance delayed a planned Saturday morning launch by a day.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-14 mission carrying up 22 of the internet satellites blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:12 p.m.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/bxVowIiW7p
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 9, 2023
The first-stage booster made its seventh flight with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic.
This marks the 47th launch from the Space Coast for the year with all but two coming from SpaceX.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/aNWmflqvNi
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 9, 2023
The 48th is slated to come from ULA, which last flew in June, with only its second launch of the year lined up for Sunday morning from Canaveral’s SLC 41. It was originally targeting Saturday morning, but ULA posted the attempt “has been scrubbed due to an issue found during a prelaunch ordnance circuit continuity check.”
That flight is an Atlas V rocket with five solid rocket boosters on a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office and Space Force called SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 now set for liftoff at 8:47 a.m. Sunday.
The other Space Coast non-SpaceX launch came in March from Relativity Space with its 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket.
After Idalia delay, ULA is set for an Atlas V launch on Saturday
SpaceX, though, has been plugging along at a rate that could see it surpass 90 launches for the year from all of its facilities.
Including California launches, SpaceX has with this launch flown 63 orbital flights in 2023, having already surpassed the record 61 it set in 2022. That doesn’t include the April 20 attempt of its Starship and Super Heavy from its Texas test launch facility Starbase.
FAA closes SpaceX Starship mishap investigation from April explosion, but not ready to let it fly
That flight ended exploding before orbit, but Elon Musk’s company has a second stacked Starship on the launch pad there awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for another go.
The FAA on Friday said it had completed its mishap investigation, but it’s on SpaceX to satisfy the 63 corrective actions deemed necessary to make Starship flights safe.
Starship is the eventual planned replacement for its workhorse Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
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