SLC-40

SpaceX Falcon 9 launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at 09:20 AM EDT on August 20, 2024.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

SpaceX launched another tranche of Starlink satellites to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

Liftoff was at 09:20 AM EDT, with Booster B1085 completing its first mission successfully 8:14 minutes later when it touched down offshore on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’

B0185, whose maiden flight was originally slated for Crew 9, was moved up in SpaceX’s rotation to prove in the booster due to some water intrusion while it was being shipped from the company’s McGregor, Texas facilities. The flight was nominal, and the booster will not be returned to Port Canaveral and ultimately SpaceX’s ‘Hangar X’ facility where it will be inspected and refurbished with an eye towards using it for the Crew 9 flight late next month.

The second stage continued to orbit nominally, with SpaceX reporting several successful second stage burns that optimized the orbit for payload deployment.

Payload

23 Starlink satellites. They will join Group 10 of SpaceX’s burgeoning Starlink’s constellation of Internet communication satellites. That service is used by over 3.1 million users in over 100 countries and territories worldwide.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

SpaceX will launch another group of Starlink satellites early in the morning on Friday from Space Launch Complex 40.

  • Date: NET August 23, 2024
  • Organization: SpaceX
  • Mission: Starlink 8-6
  • Rocket: Falcon 9
  • Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
  • Launch Window: 03:46 – 07:46 AM EDT
  • Payload: Starlink telecommunication satellites
Falcon 9 left two “smoke rings” as it ascended this morning. This one was the first.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Falcon 9 left a pair of “smoke rings” as it cruised through the clouds over Cape Canaveral this morning.
Photo: Charles Boyer, Talk of Titusville
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Falcon 9 lifts off of Space Launch Complex 40 on August 15, 2024 carrying the Worldview 3 and Worldview 4 Earth-imaging satellites for Maxar.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

On a humid, hazy and thoroughly typical August morning in central Florida, SpaceX launched the WorldView 3 and WorldView 4 Earth-imaging satellites owned and operated by Maxar Corporation.

Liftoff was at the opening of the launch window at 09:00 AM EDT, with Booster B1076 completing its 16th mission successfully 7:48 minutes later when it touched down at Landing Zone 1, about six miles from where it had launched only minutes before. Moments later, a pair of sonic booms sounded the booster’s return.

Booster B1076 settling in to land after launching WorldView 3 and WorldView 4 from SLC-40.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

The second stage continued to orbit nominally, with SpaceX reporting several successful second stage burns that optimized the orbit for payload deployment.

Payload

Two Maxar WorldView Earth-observation satellites.

Graphic via Maxar

Launch Replay

Next Launch

It will be a quiet weekend at the Cape as no launches are scheduled until next Tuesday, August 20th when SpaceX will launch another tranche of Starlink satellites aboard Falcon 9. The launch will be from Space Launch Complex 40 and the window opens at 05:20 AM EDT.

  • Date: NET August 20, 2024
  • Organization: SpaceX
  • Mission: Starlink 10-5
  • Rocket: Falcon 9
  • Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
  • Launch Window: 05:20 – 09:20 AM EDT
  • Payload: Starlink telecommunication satellites
Falcon 9 just before Max-Q (the point of the atmosphere’s highest resistance) today over Florida.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
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Despite on a 10% GO forecast and storms closing in from a distance, Falcon 9 flies another perfect mission.

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Northrup Grumman’s Cygnus CRS-2 NG-21 (S.S. Francis R. “Dick” Scobee) to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral. Liftoff was at 11:02 AM EDT under variable skies that showed a strong chance of storms coming in shortly afterwards.

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A dawn view of the busiest rocket launch pad in the world, Space Launch Complex 40. A Falcon 9 rocket is 229.6 ft (70 m) tall and 12 ft (3.7 m) in diameter, or 21.2 stories — it would be a tall building in most city skylines. Unfortunately, a line of thunderstorms forced a launch scrub on this day, but still, being at a launch pad is a special thing any time.

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Despite a pessimistic weather forecast, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying the Starlink 10-2 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this afternoon at 01:15 PM EDT, at the opening of a nearly four-hour launch window.

Around 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the first-stage booster used for the mission, tail number B1078, touched down safely on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’, stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean east of the Carolinas. B1078 has now flown eleven successful missions. ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ will now return to Port Canaveral, where the booster will be unloaded, transported to SpaceX’s Hangar X facility at Kennedy Space Center and prepared for its next flight after inspection and refurbishment.

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Florida weather can be a capricious, fickle thing, and that’s just what it has been the past few days on the Space Coast: windy, occasional rain, or sometimes both — weather that’s normal for this time of year but not very good for launching rockets. That caused two scrubs for SpaceX this week, due to high winds at Cape Canaveral.

Today, on the third attemt, the winds abated and the storms stayed far enough away for SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 carrying the Astra 1P / SES-24 television satellite to orbit. Liftoff was at the opening of the launch window at 5:35 PM EDT and roughly eight-and-a-half minutes later, Booster B1080 touched down safely aboard ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’ in the Atlantic Ocean, completing its mission for the day. At 6:10 PM EDT, SpaceX confirmed successful deployment of the payload, marking another successful mission for the launch services company. Astra 1P will now move under its own power to geosynchronous orbit, where it will begin its commissioning process.

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Beneath a full moon this evening, SpaceX launched another twenty-three Starlink Mini V2 satellites to orbit after successfully launching the Starlink 6-62 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this evening.

Liftoff was at 10:35 PM EDT. Around 8.3 minutes after liftoff, the first-stage booster used for the mission, tail number B1080, touched down safely on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’, stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. After landing, B1080 has now flown eight times.

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