SLC-40

SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites this morning from Cape Canaveral, closing out the 2022 launch schedule for Florida. It was yet another picture-perfect launch.

Skies were clear enough this morning to where we could see the second stage for six-ish minutes. There’s a small gap between the end of the first stage’s powered ascent and the ignition of the second stage. My aim in this photo was to capture as much as possible of the second stage, and it succeeded from that perspective.

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Booster 1067 lofts 54 Starlink satellites to space during its sixth mission on September 18, 2022.
Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer, under Creative Commons 2.0
(click to enlarge)

After five days of weather-related delays SpaceX launched its forty-second Falcon 9 mission of the year from Pad SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Booster 1067 was being used for its sixth flight, which concluded with a successful touchdown on a drone ship platform off the shore of the Carolinas several minutes after launching.

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SpaceX Starlink launch tonight. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 10:09PM local time on September 4th, 2022. This was SpaceX’s fortieth launch of the year. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, KPLO, and two Starlink missions. In addition to the fifty-one Starlink satellites, Sherpa-LTC, an orbital transfer vehicle for customer Spaceflight Inc, a Seattle-based spacecraft developer was placed into orbit on a test mission for the company.

It was a pretty late summer night tonight, with thunderstorms to the northeast and southeast, and a nice breeze blowing off of the Indian River while we waited for liftoff. As is the usual case, we met some nice people who were seeing the first launch as well as some locals like us.

SpaceX Starlink, SLC-40, September 4, 2022
Photograph ©2002 by Charles Boyer and licensed under Creative Common 2.0
(click to enlarge)
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On Thursday, July 7 at 9:11 a.m. ET, SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Falcon 9 lifts SpaceX Starlink mission off of SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 9, 2022. This was the view (cropped) from Bennett Causeway on FL-528, about 11 miles away.
©2022 Charles Boyer
(click to enlarge)
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SpaceX launched an Egyptian communications satellite toward a geostationary orbit June 8th from Cape Canaveral. It was the first commercial launch of a geostationary payload in 2022 as the market shifts towards lower-orbit satellites.

Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 5:04 p.m. EDT (2104 GMT) from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

As seen from Bennett Causeway:

SpaceX, Falcon 9, NileSat 301, June 8, 2022
©2022 Charles Boyer
(click to enlarge)
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