It’s a busy week for SpaceX on the Space Coast with another Cape Canaveral launch that happened early Wednesday and a Thursday night launch lined up from neighboring Kennedy Space Center.
First up was another Falcon 9 launch carrying another 23 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 that lifted off at 12:05 a.m. Wednesday.
The first-stage booster made its 11th flight with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic.
This marked the 61st launch from the Space Coast for the year.
Launch No. 62 will also be a Falcon 9, but on the CRS-29 mission to the International Space Station launching from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A targeting 8:28 p.m. liftoff Thursday.
Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts 95% chance for good conditions and 90% chance in the event of a 24-hour delay.
It’s the 29th resupply mission for SpaceX with its cargo Dragon filled with 6,500 pounds of supplies for the Expedition 70 crew with an expected arrival to the ISS about 5:20 a.m. Saturday docking autonomously to the space-facing port of the ISS Harmony module.
Among the science on board is an experiment to measure atmospheric gravity waves and how it could affect Earth’s climate, and a technology demonstration for laser communications among the ISS, an orbiting relay satellite and a ground-based observatory on Earth.
The launch was delayed this week because SpaceX teams found a leak in one of the Dragon spacecraft’s Draco thruster valves, and SpaceX opted to replace the thruster.
Dragon will spend about one month attached to the ISS before returning with about 3,800 pounds of cargo with a splashdown landing off the coast of Florida.
Each launch builds on the Space Coast’s record year having already surpassed 2022’s total of 57 launches in October. SpaceX has flown all but four of the year’s launches from either Canaveral or KSC while also flying another 23 missions from California.
SpaceX launches every 3 days from the Cape in Florida, next year every 2 days https://t.co/EBlEz5G1h6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 8, 2023
“SpaceX launches every 3 days from the Cape in Florida, next year every 2 days,” Elon Musk posted to X along with images of the new crew access arm at SLC 40, which will allow SpaceX to launch human missions from both of its Space Coast launch pads.
It also attempted an orbital launch from Texas with the new Starship and Super Heavy and is awaiting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for a second attempt that could come as early as this month.
The new crew access arm’s presence at Canaveral also paves the way for eventual Starship launches to come to KSC as NASA will have a redundant ability to launch its astronauts in the event Starship damages the KSC launch pad.
![By MEAD GRUVER (Associated Press) The human species has topped 8 billion, with longer lifespans offsetting fewer births, but world population growth continues a long-term trend of slowing down, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday. The bureau estimates the global population exceeded the threshold Sept. 26, a precise date the agency said to take with […]](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/India_Festival_49284.jpg?w=525 "By MEAD GRUVER (Associated Press) The human species has topped 8 billion, with longer lifespans offsetting fewer births, but world population growth continues a long-term trend of slowing down, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday. The bureau estimates the global population exceeded the threshold Sept. 26, a precise date the agency said to take with […]")
