SpaceX launched Falcon 9 early this evening from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Liftoff was at 06:51 PM EDT as the sun was starting to set to the west. Eight and a half minutes later, Booster B1067 touched down on ‘Just Read The Instructions’, completing its twenty-second mission. Falcon 9’s second stage continued ascending to its initial orbit, where it will deploy the payloads so that they may travel to their final orbital destination in Medium Earth Orbit and begin their commissioning process before entering service.

Falcon 9’s first stage lands on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/YhH3fP7svM

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 17, 2024

Lucky And Good

Some say that it’s better to be lucky than good, but in the case of SpaceX, they have been both in 2024: several times with stormy skies surrounding the launch pad and possibly closing in, the company has been able to successfully send a payload to space — and that includes crewed missions, customer payloads and of course their own Starlink satellites.

Tonight was no exception to a summer of just-in-time launches: a thunderstorm with an anvil cloud was lurking to the west of Space Launch Complex 40, and slowly moving towards Falcon 9. Had the storm moved a little faster, chances are the mission would have been scrubbed due to lightning rules, anvil cloud rules or cumulus cloud rules. ESA and SpaceX’s luck held out, however, and Falcon 9 launched on schedule and with no issues.

Payload

Galileo satellites are the European Union’s version of GPS and GLONASS, providing high-precision ground positioning.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

SpaceX and NASA will launch Crew 9 aboard Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon from Space Launch Complex 40 no earlier than September 25, 2024. NASA Astronaut Nick Hague will be the commander, with Russian Cosmonaut  Aleksandr Gorbunov as the mission pilot on a launch targeting the International Space Station.

• Date: NET September 25, 2024
• Organization: SpaceX / NASA / Roscosmos
• Mission: Crew 9
• Rocket: Falcon 9 / Crew Dragon
• Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
• Launch Window: 02:28 PM EDT
• Payload: Two crew members