Photo: Ed Cordero, Florida Media Now
SpaceX launched its thirtieth resupply mission to the International Space Station on Thursday from Pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Launch was right on time at 4:55 PM EDT into nearly perfect weather. Today’s launch was the company’s 27 launch of the year so far.
Photo: Michael Lynch, Talk of Titusville
Several minutes after launch, the booster used for the flight — B1080 — returned to CCSFS and touched down successfully, completing its mission for the day and sixth mission overall while the payload continued to orbit. A sonic boom heard across the Space Coast region heralded the arrival of the booster, which touched down at SpaceX’s LZ-1 only a few miles from the launch pad at SLC-40.
This launch was the first Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft from SLC-40 and will be the first mission-use of the newly installed Crew Access Arm on the SLC-40 launch tower.
Photo: Ed Cordero, Florida Media Now
The Cargo Dragon spacecraft is planned to arrive at ISS at 7:30 AM EDT on Saturday, where it will autonomously dock to Station’s Harmony module on the zenith port.
After docking, the spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to ISS before it returns to Earth off the coast of Florida.
Booster B1080
Thursday’s flight was the sixth for Booster 1080. It entered service on May 21, 2023 when it carried four astronauts aboard the Axion-2 mission. Its most recent flight before yesterday was the Axiom-3 mission, where it again carried four astronauts to orbit.
| Booster B1080 | ||
| Flight Number | Mission | Date |
| 1 | Axiom-2 | May 21, 2023 |
| 2 | Euclid | July 1, 2023 |
| 3 | Starlink 6-11 | August 27 2023 |
| 4 | Starlink 6-24 | October 22, 2023 |
| 5 | Axiom-3 | January 18, 2024 |
| 6 | CRS-30 | March 21, 2024 |
Dragon
This is the fourth mission for Cargo Dragon C209.
| Crew Dragon 2 | |
| Serial Number | C209 |
| Destination | International Space Station |
| Flights | 4 |