A Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:08 p.m., sending up a pair of satellites for Luxembourg-based SES.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/7xuJd88TOZ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 12, 2023

This is the third time SpaceX has sent up a pair of SES’s O3b mPOWER satellites, which are headed for medium-Earth orbit. They are part of SES’s goal of sending up 11 such satellites to increase connectivity to remote places.

The “O3b” is in reference to the “other 3 billion” referring to the Earth’s population without access to the infrastructure found in more metropolitan areas. The mPOWER satellites are the next generation of an existing constellation of MEO satellites for SES already used by companies such as Princess Cruises.

This was the ninth flight for the first-stage booster, which landed downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

It marked the 63rd rocket launch in 2023 on the Space Coast, with SpaceX flying all but four of those. SpaceX has also flown 24 missions from California for the year, and has now had 83 successful orbital launches for the year.

In April, it attempted to fly to orbit its Starship and Super Heavy from its Boca Chica, Texas site Starbase for the first time, but problems with stage separation before reaching orbital altitude forced SpaceX to have the rocket self destruct over the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX still awaits final approval to fly from the Federal Aviation Administration, but its second attempt for the orbital test flight has a target to launch on Friday, according to the company’s website.

Starship preparing to launch as early as November 17, pending final regulatory approval → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK pic.twitter.com/qRKv9ugWsR

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2023

SpaceX will stream the test about 30 minutes before liftoff.

“As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change,” the company stated.

Starship is the replacement rocket for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, and despite not making it to orbit, became the most powerful rocket to make it off the launch pad with more than 17 million pounds of thrust at liftoff during the April 20 attempt.

If it makes it orbit on this second attempt, it would surpass the record-holding power generated by NASA’s Space Launch System during its November 2022 launch on the Artemis I mission, which topped 8.8. million pounds of thrust.

“There are really a tremendous number of changes between the last Starship flight and this one, well over 1,000,” Musk said in a June interview. “I think the probability of this next flight working, you know getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one.”

Plans for this attempt still look to have Starship to climb to between 93 and 155 miles during a trip that will take it two-thirds of the way around the Earth for a hard splashdown near Hawaii.

The April attempt saw the rocket, using a combined propellant of liquid methane and liquid oxygen, make it through what’s called Max Q, the area where the craft endures maximum dynamic pressure, and it did achieve speeds up to 1,340 mph.

Had all gone well, both the booster and Starship were to have separated and each made their own hard water landings, with the booster splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship in the Pacific Ocean after its flight.

The launch system in Texas, and one that will eventually be built at Kennedy Space Center, is designed so that eventually the Super Heavy booster would return to the 469-foot-tall launch integration tower often referred to as “Mechazilla,” with a landing achieved with the aid of two pivoting metal arms called the “chopsticks.”

The Starship spacecraft would make a vertical landing at its destination as well, which would make the combination the first fully reusable rocket in the industry.

NASA has been waiting on SpaceX’s Starship as it has contracted with Musk’s company to provide a working version for its astronauts in the Artemis program to use it as their ride down to the surface of the moon.

That mission is currently slotted for the Artemis III flight, no earlier than December 2025, but that would require for SpaceX to get its Starship up and running and perform a successful uncrewed landing on the moon before NASA would let its astronauts on board.

For SpaceX, plans are to fly dozens if not more than 100 operational launches of Starship before it lets any humans on board, but it has at least three commercial human spaceflight missions already lined up in addition to the NASA mission.

Check back for the latest information on upcoming launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

By The Numbers:

63 Space Coast launches in 2023 (updated Nov. 12) | 51 from Cape Canaveral, 12 from KSC | 59 from SpaceX (55 Falcon 9s, 4 Falcon Heavy), 3 from United Launch Alliance (1 Delta IV Heavy, 2 Atlas V), 1 from Relativity Space | 3 human spaceflights (Crew-6, Ax-2, Crew-7)

Details on past launches can be found at the end of file.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 9: SpaceX Falcon 9 with cargo Dragon on the CRS-29 mission to carry supplies to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-B at 8:28 p.m. 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. It includes NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) science experiment to measure atmospheric gravity waves and how it could affect Earth’s climate and the Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T), a technology demonstration for laser communications among the ISS, an orbiting relay satellite and a ground-based observatory on Earth. The first-stage booster flew for the second time and landed back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

Nov. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES O3b mPOWER mission to medium-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40  at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:08 p.m. First stage made its 9th flight with a recovery landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

DECEMBER

Dec. 24 (Delayed from May 4): First-ever launch of United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on Certification-1 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 1:49 a.m. Slated to carry commercial company Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander to the moon. Also flying will be another human remains payload for Celestis Inc.,, this time brining the ashes of more than 150 people to space including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan who played “Scotty” on the TV series. Read more.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2023

TBD, 4th quarter of 2023: SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A on USSF-52, the third mission for the Space Force. The side boosters will be flying for the fifth time, previously used on the Psyche mission, two Space Force missions and one commercial flight with plans for another double land landing at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2024

Jan. 12 (Delayed from Nov. 14): A SpaceX Falcon 9 with the Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar lander from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 11 p.m. This could end up being the first NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission to land on the moon, depending on launch of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander awaiting a flight on the Vulcan Centaur. The IM-1 is a suite of five robotic NASA payloads sent to the moon’s surface as part of a CLPS delivery. Landing would take place weeks after launch.

No earlier than January 2024: Axiom Space was awarded the right to fly Axiom-3. No crew has been announced, but NASA requires it to be commanded by a former NASA astronaut with experience on the space station such as the Ax-1 and Ax-2 commanders. The commercial flight brings four crew for a short stay on the ISS. This mission is targeting a 14-day stay, and will fly up with one of the SpaceX Crew Dragons. The launch date is dependent on spacecraft traffic to the ISS and in-orbit activity planning and constraints that have to be coordinated with NASA.

January 2024: NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol Cloud Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9. PACE will advance the assessment of ocean health by measuring the distribution of phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that sustain the marine food web.

No earlier than mid-February 2024: SpaceX Crew-8 on Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A. It’s the eighth SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Its four crew members are NASA astronauts Commander Matthew Dominick, Pilot Michael Barratt, Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps and  Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin.

TBD, early 2024: United Launch Alliance Atlas V on USSF 51 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

TBD, 1st quarter of 2024 (Delayed from summer 2023): Polaris Dawn mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 topped with the Crew Dragon Resilience from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. The private orbital mission will bring billionaire Jared Isaacman to space for a second time after 2021′s Inspiration4 mission. It’s the first of up to three planned Polaris missions, and will feature a tethered spacewalk. Also flying are Scott Poteet, given the title of mission pilot, specialist Sarah Gillis, and specialist and medical officer Anna Menon. Both Gillis and Menon are SpaceX employees. Read more.

TBD 1st quarter of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on Sierra Space Dream Chaser test flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41. Read more.

No earlier than mid-April 2024 (Delayed from July 21): Boeing CST-100 Starliner atop United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station followed by a parachute-and -irbag-assisted ground landing in the desert of the western United States. Read more.

TBD, delayed from December 2023: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on the NG-20 mission to resupply the International Space Station. This will be the first ISS launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40, which SpaceX has been redeveloping to support future crewed missions in addition to KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A. This is the first of at least three SpaceX flights of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft as part of a deal after its 10-year run of launches atop Antares rockets ended with the Aug. 1 launch from Wallops Island, Virginia because of issues with Russian- and Ukrainian-made rocket engines and first stage parts that are being redeveloped with Firefly Aerospace for a future Antares rocket not expected until at least 2025.

TBD, 2nd quarter of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on first of three planned Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

No earlier than mid-August 2024: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Crew-9 mission. Its crew of four has yet to be announced.

No earlier than October 2024: Axiom Space was awarded the right to fly Axiom-4. No crew has been announced, but NASA requires it to be commanded by a former NASA astronaut with experience on the space station such as the Ax-1 and Ax-2 commanders. The commercial flight brings four crew for a short stay on the ISS. This mission is targeting a 14-day stay, and will fly up with one of the SpaceX Crew Dragons. The launch date is dependent on spacecraft traffic to the ISS and in-orbit activity planning and constraints that have to be coordinated with NASA.

TBD, second half of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on second of three planned Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

TBD, second half of 2024: United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur on third of three planned Department of Defense mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41.

November 2024: NASA Artemis II mission to send four crew on 8-day orbital mission to the moon from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. Read more.

UPCOMING: TBD IN 2025

TBD, no earlier than early 2025: Boeing Starliner-1 on ULA Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 41. NASA astronauts Scott Tingle and Mike Fincke will be commander and pilot, respectively. This Starliner previously flew on Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 mission. Depending on data from CFT mission, this could become SpaceX Crew-10 mission.

No earlier than December 2025: NASA Artemis III mission to send four crew on lunar landing mission to the moon from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. Read more.

ALREADY LAUNCHED IN 2023

Jan. 3: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter-6 mission carrying 114 payloads for a variety of customers blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:56 a.m. Read more.

Jan. 9: A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off carrying 40 satellites for OneWeb at 11:50 p.m. Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Read more.

Jan. 15: The fifth-ever flight of SpaceX’s powerhouse Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off at 5:56 p.m. from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A on a mission for the Space Force dubbed USSF-67. Read more.

Jan. 18: A SpaceX Falcon 9 on the GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission for the Space Force rose through the pink, orange and blue horizon at 7:24 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Read more.

Jan. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 5-2 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launched at 4:32 a.m. sending up 56 Starlink satellites. Read more.

Feb. 2: Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-3 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A at 2:43 a.m. 200th successful flight of Falcon 9 on mission to send up 53 Starlink satellites. Read more.

Feb. 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Amazonas-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 lifted off at 8:32 p.m. Payload is communications satellite for Hispasat known also as the Amazonas Nexus. Read more.

Feb. 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-4 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 launched 55 Starlink satellites at 12:10 a.m. This set a then-record turnaround between launches from the same pad for SpaceX coming just five days, three hours, and 38 minutes since the Feb. 6 launch. Read more.

Feb. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Inmarsat’s I-6 F2 satellite launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:59 p.m. The second of six planned communication satellite launches, the first of which came in 2021 with the final coming by 2025. Read more.

Feb. 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-1 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:13 p.m. carrying 21 of the second-generation Starlink satellites. Read more.

March 2: Crew-6 mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching Crew Dragon Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A at 12:34 a.m. A Feb. 27 attempt was scrubbed with less than three minutes before liftoff. Flying were NASA astronauts mission commander Stephen Bowen and pilot Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, heading to the International Space Station for around a six-month stay. It’s the sixth SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Read more.

March 9: A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off carrying 40 satellites for OneWeb launched at 2:13 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. The first-stage booster flew for the 13th time landing at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1. Read more.

March 14: After arrival of Crew-6 and departure of Crew-5 to make room for a cargo Dragon, SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a cargo Dragon spacecraft on CRS-27, the 27th resupply mission to the International Space Station from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 8:30 p.m. Read more.

March 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES 18 and 19 mission, a pair of communication satellites set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. Set a record for SpaceX mission turnaround with launch only four hours and 17 minutes after a Starlink launch from California. Read more.

March 22: Relativity Space Terran-1, a 3D-printed rocket awaiting company’s first-ever launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 16 at 11:25 p.m. While first stage successfully separated, the second stage engine did not get it into orbit. Read more.

March 24: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-5 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:43 a.m. carrying 56 Starlink satellites to orbit. The booster made its 10th flight. Read more.

March 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launched at 4:01 p.m. The booster making its fourth flight landed on Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

April 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Intelsat 40e mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting 12:30 a.m., the opening of a 119-minute launch window that runs until 2:29 a.m. Space Launch Delta 45′s weather squadron gives forecasts a 90% chance for good conditions early Friday, and 85% chance in event of 24-hour delay. Read more.

April 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on Starlink 6-2 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station targeting 9:48 a.m. during a launch window that runs from 8:18 a.m.-Noon. The Space Launch Delta 45 weather squadron forecast calls for 90% chance of good conditions and 80% chance in event of a 24-hour delay. The first-stage booster is making its eighth flight and SpaceX will attempt its recovery again on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

April 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the SES 03b mPOWER-B mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40. SLD 45′s weather squadron puts launch window from 5:12-6:40 p.m. with a forecast predicting only 20% chance for good conditions, up to 30% chance in event of 24-hour delay. Read more.

April 30: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of ViaSat-3 Americas’ communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A at 8:26 p.m. All three boosters were expended, so no sonic boom landings. Also flying were payloads for Astranis Space Technologies and Gravity Space headed for geostationary orbits. It’s the sixth-ever Falcon Heavy launch. The launch pad endured a lightning strike on April 27, but SpaceX said the rocket was healthy for the attempt. Read more.

May 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 56 Starlink satellites at 3:31 a.m. The first-stage booster making its eighth flight was recovered once again on the droneship called A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

May 14: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launnched at 1:03 a.m. Read more.

May 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-3 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 2:19 a.m. carrying 22 second-gen Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made its fifth flight and landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in Atlantic. Read more.

May 21: Axiom 2 mission with four private passengers launched to the International Space Station for an eight-day visit flying on a SpaceX Falcon 9 topped with Crew Dragon Freedom from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at 5:37 p.m.  The first-stage booster flew for the first time with a return to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zone 1. This is only the second crewed mission from the U.S. in 2023 following March’s Crew-6 mission. The second Axiom Space private mission to the International Space Station following 2022′s Axiom 1 mission. Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is the mission commander with aviator John Shoffner as pilot and two mission specialist seats paid for by the Saudi Space Commission, Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali AlQarni. Read more.

May 27: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the ArabSat BADR-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:30 a.m. The first-stage booster made its 14th flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-4 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 22 second-generation Starlink satellites at 8:20 a.m. The first-stage booster made its third flight and was able to land down range on droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch came 13 years to the day since the first Falcon 9 launch in 2010. It was the 229th attempt of a Falcon 9 launch with 228 of the 229 successful. Read more.

June 5 (Delayed from June 3, 4): SpaceX Falcon 9 on CRS-28 launched a cargo Dragon spacecraft, the 28th resupply mission to the International Space Station from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A at at 11:47 a.m. The first-stage booster made its fifth flight and SpaceX recovered it downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. This is the fourth flight of the crew Dragon, which will be bring up nearly 7,000 pounds of supplies, dock to the station 41 hours after launch and remain on the station for three weeks. Read more.

June 12: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-11 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 53 of the company’s internet satellites at 3:10 a.m.  The first stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

June 18: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the PSN MSF mission to launch the Satria communications satellite for the Indonesian government and PSN, an Indonesian satellite operator. This satellite will provide broadband internet and communications capability for public use facilities in Indonesia’s rural regions. Liftoff was at 6:21 p.m. with the first-stage booster making its 12th flight and once again landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

June 22: United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy on NROL-68 for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command and the National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37B lifted off at 5:18 a.m. This was the second-to-last Delta IV Heavy launch with the final one expected in 2024. Read more.

June 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 5-12 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 carrying 56 Starlink satellites at 11:35 a.m. The first-stage booster flew for the ninth time and landed on a droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

July 1: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the ESA Euclid space telescope mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:12 a.m. The European Space Agency telescope is designed to make a 3D map of the universe by looking at billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away across one third of the sky. Read more.

July 9: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-5 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:58 p.m. The booster made a record 16th flight and was recovered again downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 5-15 mission with 54 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:50 p.m. (early Friday scrubbed 40 seconds before launch, and early Saturday option passed over) Booster made a record-tying 16th fligh landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

July 23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:50 p.m. carrying 22 of its v2 mini Starlink satellites. The booster flew for the sixth time and made a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

July 28: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 12:01 a.m. with 22 Starlink satellites. Booster flew for the 15th time including crewed launches Inspiration4 and Ax-1, and made recovery landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. The launch set a record for turnaround time for the company from a single launch pad coming four days, three hours, and 11 minutes since the July 23 launch. The previous record was set from Feb. 6-12 at five days, three hours, and 38 minutes. Read more.

July 28: SpaceX Falcon Heavy from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A that launched a telecom satellite for Hughes Network Systems called the Jupiter 3 EchoStar XXIV at 11:04 p.m. The two side boosters were recovered at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was the third Falcon Heavy launch of 2023 and seventh overall. Read more.

Aug. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Intelsat G-37 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1 a.m. The first-stage booster made its sixth flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions. Read more.

Aug. 6: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-8 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:41 p.m. with 22 Starlink V2 minis. The first-stage booster made its fourth flight with another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. The turnaround time between the Aug. 3 Intelsat G-37 mission and this mission broke SpaceX’s previous record for time between launches from a single launch pad. Previous record was from July 24-28 with a turnaround of four days, three hours, and 11 minutes. This one came in at three days, 21 hours, 41 minutes. Read more.

Aug. 11: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-9 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:17 a.m. Payload is 22 of the V2 mini Starlink satellites. First-stage booster flew for the ninth time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. Read more.

Aug. 16: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with 22 of the V2 mini Starlink satellites. The first-stage booster made its 13th flight and SpaceX was able to recover it again on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

Aug. 26: SpaceX Crew-7 mission on a Falcon 9 launching the Crew Dragon Endurance from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A lifted off at 3:27 a.m. liftoff. It’s the seventh SpaceX operational mission under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Flying are NASA astronaut and mission commander Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut and pilot Andreas Mogensen, mission specialist JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and mission specialist Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov. This will be Endurance’s third spaceflight after having been used on the Crew-3 and Crew-5 missions. The launch will use a new first-stage booster. The crew will arrive at 8:50 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 27. with hatch opening about two hours later. It will stay docked about 190 days. Read more.

Aug. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-11 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 9:05 p.m. with 22 Starlink satellites. The first stage flew for the third time and landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Aug. 31: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-13 mission carrying 22 of the v2 Starlink minis from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:21 p.m. It was SpaceX’s ninth launch of the calendar month matching the record nine launches it had in May. It was the company’s 60th orbital launch of the year. The first-stage booster flew for the seventh time and made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-12 mission carrying 21 of the v2 Starlink minis from Kennedy Space Center’s Space Launch Complex 39-A at 10:47 p.m. It marked the 62nd SpaceX orbital launch in 2023 besting the 61 launches the company performed in 2022. The first-stage booster on the flight made its 10th launch and was able to make its recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept. 8: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-14 mission carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 took off at 11:12 p.m. The first-stage booster made its seventh flight with a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas downrange in the Atlantic. Read more.

Sept. 10 (delayed from Aug. 29): United Launch Alliance Atlas V on the SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 for the National Reconnaissance Office and Space Force from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 8:47 a.m.. Delayed because of Tropical Storm Idalia. This was the second ULA launch of 2023. SILENTBARKER’s classified mission is to improve space domain awareness to support national security and provide intelligence data to U.S. senior policy makers, the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. It will provide the capability to search, detect and track objects from space-based sensors for timely custody and event detection. Read more.

Sept. 15: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-16 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launching at 11:38 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission made its fifth flight with a landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. It marked SpaceX’s 65th orbital launch of the year including missions from Canaveral, KSC and California. Read more.

Sept. 19: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-17 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 launching at 11:38 p.m. This was a record reuse flight for the first-stage booster flying for a 17th time with a recovery landing on the droneship A Short Fall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept.23: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-18 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 11:38 p.m. The first-stage booster made a record-tying 17th flight with a recovery landing down range on droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more.

Sept.29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-19 mission, carrying 22 of its Starlink satellites, flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10 p.m. The booster on this flight made its 10th launch having flown on CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19 and five Starlink missions. It made a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 69th launch of the year, its 49th from the Space Coast, 39th from Cape Canaveral and the other 10 from KSC. With only three non-SpaceX flights this year, it was the Space Coast’s 52nd overall. Read more.

Oct. 5: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-21 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:36 a.m.  The booster made its eighth flight with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 70th launch of the year, its 50th from the Space Coast, 40th from Cape Canaveral. With only three non-SpaceX flights this year, it is the Space Coast’s 53rd overall. Read more.

Oct. 6: United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 2:06 p.m. Payload was Amazon’s two test Project Kuiper satellites that were set to fly on ULA’s first Vulcan Centaur rocket, but switched to one of the nine Atlas rockets Amazon had previously purchased from ULA as Vulcan had been delayed to no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2023. Read more.

Oct. 13 (Delayed from Oct. 12): A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched NASA’s Psyche probe into space launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-A at 10:19 a.m. The probe was delayed from 2022, and headed for the asteroid Psyche, using a Mars-gravity assist and not arriving until August 2029. Psyche is a nickel-iron core asteroid that orbits the sun beyond Mars anywhere from 235 million to 309 million miles away. The two side boosters returned for a land landing at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Read more.

Oct. 13 (Delayed from Oct. 8): SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-22 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:01 p.m. The first-stage booster for the mission is making its 14th flight, and made another recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas down range in the Atlantic. The launch came 8 hours and 42 minutes after the Falcon Heavy launch from nearby KSC earlier in the day. Read more.

Oct. 17: SpaceX Falcon 9 on Starlink 6-23 mission with 22 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:36 p.m. This is the first-stage booster made its 16th flight with a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. This marked the Space Coasts’ 57th launch of the year, which matched the total it had in 2022. Read more.

Oct. 21: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-24 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:17 p.m. The first-stage booster made its fourth flight with a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas. This became the record 58th launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

Oct. 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-25 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:20 p.m. This was the 59th launch from the Space Coast for the year. The first-stage booster flew for the eighth time and made a  recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions stationed down range in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 3: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-26 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 8:37 p.m. This was the 60th launch from the Space Coast for the year. The first-stage booster flew for a record 18th time and made a  recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed down range in the Atlantic. Read more.

Nov. 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-27 mission with 23 of its Starlink satellites to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 targeting 11:01 p.m. with seven backup options from 11:23 p.m. until 3 a.m. Wednesday and eight backups on Wednesday night from 11 p.m. through 2:58 a.m. Thursday. Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron gives the launch more than a 95% chance for good conditions, and 95% chance for good conditions in the event of a 24-hour delay. The first-stage booster is making its 11th flight with a target landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic. This would be the 61st launch from the Space Coast for the year. Read more.

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Borman died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, according to NASA.

Borman also led troubled Eastern Airlines in the 1970s and early ’80s after leaving the astronaut corps.

But he was best known for his NASA duties. He and his crew, James Lovell and William Anders, were the first Apollo mission to fly to the moon — and to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.

“Today we remember one of NASA’s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement Thursday. “His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.”

Launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 trio spent three days traveling to the moon, and maneuvered into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. After they circled 10 times on Dec. 24-25, they headed home on Dec. 27.

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from the orbiter: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

Borman ended the broadcast with, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.”

Lovell and Borman had previously flown together during the two-week Gemini 7 mission, which launched on Dec. 4, 1965 — and, at only 120 feet apart, completed the first space orbital rendezvous with Gemini 6.

“Gemini was a tough go,” Borman told The Associated Press in 1998. “It was smaller than the front seat of a Volkswagen bug. It made Apollo seem like a super-duper, plush touring bus.”

In his book, “Countdown: An Autobiography,” Borman said Apollo 8 was originally supposed to orbit Earth. The success of Apollo 7’s mission in October 1968 to show system reliability on long duration flights made NASA decide it was time to take a shot at flying to the moon.

But Borman said there was another reason NASA changed the plan: the agency wanted to beat the Russians. Borman said he thought on orbit would suffice.

“My main concern in this whole flight was to get there ahead of the Russians and get home. That was a significant achievement in my eyes,” Borman said at a Chicago appearance in 2017.

It was on the crew’s fourth orbit that Anders snapped the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing a blue and white Earth rising above the gray lunar landscape.

Borman wrote about how the Earth looked from afar: “We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us. We said nothing to each other, but I was sure our thoughts were identical — of our families on that spinning globe. And maybe we shared another thought I had, This must be what God sees.”

A Falcon 9 with an uncrewed cargo Dragon on the CRS-29 mission blasted off at 8:28 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/iQ8DH6XoU8

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 10, 2023

It was the second flight for the rocket’s first-stage booster, having in August launched Crew-7, the crew of which is still on the ISS. Its recovery landing came not at sea but back at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Landing Zone 1, bringing the signature double sonic boom across parts of the Space Coast and Central Florida.

Orbiting the ISS are seven crew from the U.S., Japan, Denmark and Russia, and they’ll get a fresh food kit including oranges, apples, cherry tomatoes and carrots as well as two specialty cheese kits.

“And because we’re in the holiday season we’ve got some fun holiday treats for the crew like chocolate, pumpkin spice cappuccino, rice cakes, turkey, duck, quail, seafood, cranberry sauce and mochi,” said Dana Weigel, NASA’s deputy program manager for the International Space Station Program. “We’ve also got some pizza kits, which are a favorite for our crew, some hummus, salsa and olives.”

Among the 6,500 pounds of science and supplies headed to the International Space Station are major experiments to pave the way for deep-space communications NASA will need for its future crewed missions to Mars. Also on board is an Earth weather experiment to track atmospheric gravity waves and how it could affect Earth’s climate.

The laser communication technology demonstration, called ILLUMA-T, will use a terminal mounted on the exterior of the ISS to send infrared light to NASA’s orbiting Laser Communications Relay Demonstration satellite, which will then beam it to ground stations in Haleakala, Hawaii and Table Mountain, California.

“This is using optical communication to use lower power and smaller hardware for sending data packages back from the space station to Earth that are even larger and faster than our capabilities today,” said Meghan Everett, deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program Research Office. “This optical communication could hugely benefit the research that we are already doing on the space station by allowing our scientists to see the data faster, turn results around faster and even help our medical community by sending down medical packets of data.”

Laser-based communication is also being tested out on the recently launched Psyche probe as it heads out past Mars over the next several years.

The Earth science instrument flying up is NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment that will over two years look at the natural phenomenon that are small closer to the planet’s surface, but can grow exponentially as they climb in altitude, and even venture into space, something not easily observable by scientists on Earth.

“So gravity waves you can think of them as little pockets of energy that start off very small, where they start and are in lower atmospheres. And they grow as they get into higher atmospheres, and here at the higher atmospheres because they’re bigger we can measure them from the space station,” Everett said. “So we are hoping that by measuring these atmospheric, or these gravity waves, we can get a better idea of space weather which could impact climate change, or how winds in space affect our satellites.”

Among the more than 3,330 pounds of science equipment for more than 50 experiments flying up are ones that aim to improve water filtration in both space and back on Earth, a female reproductive health investigation that will fly up 40 rodents, 20 of which will make their way back down to Earth before the others for comparative studies, and a study that looks at how fluid moves through the respiratory tract.

This cargo Dragon is also making its second flight having also visited the ISS for CRS-26 in 2022. It’s slated to arrive around 5:20 a.m. Saturday docking autonomously to the space-facing port of the ISS Harmony module.

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.

It marked the 62nd launch from the Space Coast among all companies in 2023, all but four of which have come from SpaceX. It’s also the 81st launch from SpaceX among its Florida and California pads having also flown 23 missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The 375-foot-tall crane arrived at the port as cargo from Germany in October adding another puzzle piece to Jeff Bezos’ plans to send up its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36.

“It’s now the highest point in our Port Canaveral as a whole,” said Port Canaveral CEO Capt. John Murray at a port authority meeting last month. “It’s a very, very tall crane and when you look across and you see our mobile harbor crane, it looks very small compared to this Blue Origin crane.”

It towers over the port’s 302-foot crane, both of which are at North Cargo Berth 6.

“That’s our crane and a significant milestone as we make rapid progress in New Glenn’s development,” said Blue Origin spokesperson Sara Blask in an email. “The crane will be used to offload New Glenn’s fully reusable first stage from our sea-based landing platform back onto shore in Port Canaveral.”

Those first-stage boosters will be 189 feet tall compared to the SpaceX boosters at about 135 feet.

The entirety of the New Glenn rocket will rise to 322 feet when it launches using seven of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines to give it nearly 3.9 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

While the company confirmed this month that it is still targeting 2024 for New Glenn’s first launch, that could slip into 2025 as Blue Origin has an engine supply problem to solve.

New Glenn needs seven working BE-4 engines, but it has to supply two engines for each of its customer United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket launches.

“We’ve delivered the first two flight engines and look forward to Vulcan’s first flight later this year,” Blask said.

The first ULA mission dubbed Certification-1 with a payload to send Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander to the moon is targeting a Dec. 24 liftoff, but it has a second certification flight in the first half of 2024 that would then allow it to fly several Department of Defense missions in 2024. Vulcan launches are also going to be relied on for dozens of launches it needs to complete before summer 2026 for Bezos’ company Amazon to launch thousands of its Project Kuiper satellites, in itself a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink internet service.

Dan Caughran, who runs the Rocket Factory in Decatur, decided to pop next door to Huntsville and check on the BE4 production ramp up at @blueorigin 's brand new, very modern, Rocket Engine Factory. Lots of WIP! And,… do I spy a #VulcanRocket CERT2 engine in final assembly? pic.twitter.com/MuFb23Mb8p

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) August 17, 2023

It’s unclear the pace at which Blue Origin can provide the required engines for ULA’s heavy spate of Vulcan flights, although at least one of the two engines for ULA’s second flight were in final assembly at Blue Origin’s Alabama facilities as of August. And while ULA only needs two per launch, Blue Origin has to satisfy its customer in addition to knocking out seven for its first flight.

When it does finally fly, and if it can stick the landing, the rocket is designed for at least 25 reflights, “aligned to our mission of radically reducing launch costs and increasing access to space,” Blask said.

It also will send up Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon and to support a human landing system featuring Blue Origin’s Blue Moon to support future Artemis missions for NASA.

Thanks to @BlueOrigin for an impressive tour! I got to see New Glenn manufacturing up close, which is an essential element of their Blue Moon human landing system architecture. pic.twitter.com/ZcMTOuPeHz

— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) August 23, 2023

Construction on the rockets continues at the Blue Origin factory next door to Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex on Merritt Island.

NASA Administrator recently toured the massive Space Coast facility as well as Blue Origin’s engine production operation in Huntsville, Alabama, to check up on progress toward Artemis V currently on NASA’s roadmap for 2029.

“Impressive visit to the [Blue Origin] Huntsville Engine Production Facility,” Nelson wrote on X in October. “NASA is proud to partner with Blue Origin, especially on the Blue Moon human landing system, which will help ensure a steady cadence of astronauts on the Moon to live and work before we venture to Mars.”

At the same time, preparation continues at the reconfigured Launch Complex 36 on the southern end of Cape Canaveral. The company has large enough facilities on site to process three New Glenn rockets at once.

Blue Origin took over the lease for LC-36 in 2015, investing about $1 billion in the pad site alone. It was previously used for government launches from 1962-2005 including lunar lander Surveyor 1 in 1967 and some of the Mariner probes.

When launches finally do occur, the first-stage booster will land about 620 miles downrange in the Atlantic on a landing platform, after which it will make its way back to Port Canaveral where Blue Origin’s new crane will be waiting to start the launch process all over again.

That’s the message port CEO Capt. John Murray delivered at the annual State of the Port presentation Wednesday. He said a long-term goal is adding a new terminal for the increasing demand of the cruise industry.

“We have six full cruise terminals now. And when I say full, they’re all busy,” Murray said. “Next year we have some schedules where we have a couple of our cruise terminals operating at five and six days a week with the ship alongside. … The challenge with that utilization is that doing any kind of maintenance even as simple as cleaning the terminals after a ship departs is difficult when you’ve got one coming again in 12 hours.”

It’s part of the increased management of limited resources for the port that opened 70 years ago.

“We are a very small port. Trying to get bigger is not easy for us,” Murray said. “It might have been easy back in 1953. But over 70 years, it’s one of the things that we’ve lost. We don’t have that opportunity just to keep going into the river and grow like we did at one time.”

With those limits, optimization and efficiency can only take the port so far.

“We need another cruise terminal. If we had it right now, we could fill it up,” Murray said. “We have significant demand from the cruise lines. … We need a seventh and we need it as soon as we can get it, but in all likelihood, it’s going to be a complicated task to get there.”

Port officials have already identified an area on the south side in the marina district for the project, and the goal is to redevelop the area that supports the smaller boats such as the commercial fishing industry.

The port also is feeling growing pains from an increase in space launches. Murray noted that as many as 10 more launch service providers could join the already busy fleet of SpaceX vessels at the port in the coming years. Port officials have been in talks with Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development agency, in seeking a potential alternative location for all of their ships to dock, with a report from Space Florida due by the end of the year.

“This port can’t handle everything,” Murray said. “We alone cannot accommodate the projected maritime demand. It’s just that simple.”

For fiscal year 2023 that ended Sept. 30, the port saw a record 6.8 million passengers across 906 ship calls. That built on a rebound in 2022 after the pandemic shutdown that saw Port Canaveral’s popularity shoot past PortMiami for the first time and become the No. 1 cruise port in the world. Miami may rebound for that title by the end of this year, but it won’t be for lack of business on Canaveral’s part.

The port hosted 13 ships over the busy winter season, the most ever. Next year is set to see even more, including the arrival before the end of the year of new brands Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises along with mainstays Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian and MSC Cruises.

The year’s parking became a tactical problem having hosted more than 840,000 vehicles over the year for cruise guests alone.

That pushed up plans for two new garages on the port’s north side as well as an expanded 1,000-car lot adjacent to Cruise Terminal 1, from where Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships sail.

“Our biggest innovation right now is our new parking system that we’re rolling out. Cruise guests at Port Canaveral all pay on arrival,” Murray said. “By paying on entry, it allows people to get to the car and then immediately flow out without having to stop.”

The parking projects are among $500 million in capital improvements slated for the next five years, something the port can afford after bringing in $191 million in operating revenue for 2023 and a projection of near similar revenue in 2024.

“Everything that we earn here we pumped back into it, and it just continues to get better and stronger,” Murray said. “I think that’s the important part, is that we put our money back into our infrastructure.”

Less than three weeks after Category 5 Hurricane Otis devastated Acapulco, a port of nearly 1 million people, the Chamber of Deputies spent more than three hours listening to journalist José Jaime Maussan and his group of Peruvian doctors.

Maussan and some Mexican lawmakers became the subject of international ridicule in September when he presented two boxes with supposed mummies found in Peru. He along with others claimed they were “non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution.”

In 2017, Maussan made similar claims in Peru, and a report by that country’s prosecutor’s office found the bodies were actually “recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin.”

The report added the figures were almost certainly human-made and that “they are not the remains of ancestral aliens that they have tried to present.” The bodies were not publicly unveiled at the time, so it is unclear if they are the same as those presented to Mexico’s congress.

On Tuesday, Dr. Daniel Mendoza showed photographs and x-rays of what he said was a “non-human being.” Maussan said it was a “new species” as it did not have lungs or ribs.

Lawmaker Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, from the governing party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said “all ideas and all proposals will always be welcome to debate them, hear them to agree with or not.”

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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists on Tuesday unveiled the first pictures taken by the European space telescope Euclid, a shimmering and stunning collection of galaxies too numerous to count.

The photos were revealed by the European Space Agency, four months after the telescope launched from Cape Canaveral.

Although these celestial landscapes have been observed before by the Hubble Space Telescope and others, Euclid’s snapshots provide “razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky, and looking so far into the distant universe,” the agency said.

In one picture, Euclid captured a group shot of 1,000 galaxies in a cluster 240 million light-years away, against a backdrop of more than 100,000 galaxies billions of light-years away. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.

“Dazzling,” said the space agency’s science director, Carole Mundell, as she showed off the galaxy cluster shot on a large screen at the control center in Germany.

Euclid’s instruments are sensitive enough to pick up the smallest galaxies, which were too faint to see until now. The results are “crystal-clear and stunning images going back in cosmic time,” Mundell said.

The telescope snapped pictures of a relatively close spiral galaxy that is a ringer for our own Milky Way. Although the Hubble Space Telescope previously observed the heart of this galaxy, Euclid’s shot reveals star formation across the entire region, scientists said.

Euclid also took fresh photos of the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion, a dramatic nursery of baby stars made famous by Hubble. It took Euclid just an hour to capture the nebula’s latest beauty shot; the five new photos accounted for less than a day of observing time.

By measuring the shape and movement of galaxies as far as 10 billion light-years away, astronomers hope to learn more about the dark energy and matter that make up 95% of the universe.

The observatory will survey billions of galaxies over the next six years, creating the most comprehensive 3D map of the cosmos ever made. NASA is a partner in the $1.5 billion mission and supplied the telescope’s infrared detectors.

Launched in July, Euclid orbits the sun some 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth. The telescope is named after the mathematician of ancient Greece.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The uncrewed spacecraft is designed for now to take cargo to the International Space Station, having won a NASA contract to join SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for commercial resupply missions.

The first nearly complete version of Dream Chaser, named Tenacity, is set to leave Sierra Space’s Louisville, Colorado, production facility to begin its journey to the Space Coast. Its first stop will be to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, for a battery of environmental shakedown tests in the coming weeks.

“Today we have arrived at a profound milestone in both our company’s journey and our industry’s future – one that has been years in the making and is shaped by audacious dreaming and tenacious doing,” said Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice during an event heralding the completion of what is planned to be a fleet of Dream Chasers.

Just like the space shuttle, it will launch from Florida and land in Florida. It’s slated to be the Certification-2 mission for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, which is gearing up for Certification-1, a mission to send the Astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander to the moon, as early as Dec. 24.

Vulcan Centaur, which will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41, is the replacement rocket for ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV family of rockets, powered by two American-made engines by Blue Origin. ULA needs both missions under its belt before it can begin a spate of missions it has lined up for the Department of Defense.

ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno this past summer said it would try to fly Dream Chaser within the first few months of 2024 if its first Vulcan flight goes well. But Tenacity still has several months of testing in Ohio before making its way to the Space Coast.

The spacecraft will go through hot and cold extremes under a simulated vacuum to ensure vehicle performance in space. Vice last week targeted April as the earliest possible launch, which also requires NASA to find an open parking space at the busy space station.

Dream Chaser, which has been in the works for 15 years, would become a unique option for NASA, with the ability to make a landing right back at the former space shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft make water landings off the Florida coast while Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo capsules burn up in Earth’s atmosphere once NASA is done with them.

The launch actually has Dream Chaser attached to an expendable cargo module called Shooting Star so it can cart up about 12,000 pounds of cargo, although return trips can only handle about 4,000 pounds. NASA can use the Shooting Star to get rid of trash as it, just like Cygnus, burns up in the atmosphere.

The mission plan calls for ISS crew to capture Dream Chaser by grappling the Shooting Star module with the Canadian robotic arm at the station and to marry it to one of the ISS ports.

Sierra Space has seven cargo missions to fly to and from the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract awarded in 2016. The return trips also feature low G-force landings — less than 1.5 G’s  — something that allows for more delicate science including live animals to return safely from space within the pressurized cargo hold. It’s built to withstand 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit on reentry and make at least 15 trips to space each. Work on a second Dream Chaser has already begun.

Sierra Space also has plans to expand Dream Chaser to support crew, and the spacecraft is central to its efforts to support its partnership with Blue Origin to develop a commercial low-Earth-orbit space station called Orbital Reef. Although a finalist, that version of the Dream Chaser lost out to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner in 2014 when NASA chose those two companies for rotational crew duties to the ISS.

Dream Chaser is about 1/4th the size of space shuttle orbiters and would support up to seven crew members and supplies. It also can land at any compatible commercial runway, not just the one at KSC.

In 2022, though, Sierra Space said it would base its commercial astronaut training at KSC, and company officials still are targeting 2026 for a passenger-ready version of the Dream Chaser.