On a somewhat unexpectedly cool, brisk evening on the Space Coast with passing showers in Titusville and other locations nearby Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX launched two navigation satellites for the European Space Agency. Liftoff was at 08:34 PM EDT from Pad LC-39A at KSC. Liftoff and ascent to orbit was successful.
SpaceX got Falcon 9 to work right at the beginning of tonight’s launch window when it launched the Starlink 6-51 mission at 5:26 PM EDT into the bluebird skies of the Space Coast. The payload was another 23 Starlink satellites to join the company’s ever-growing constellation of thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit that provide Internet service to underserved areas globally.
The Eutelsat mission launched at 5:52 PM EDT on a day that Florida tourist boards dream of: a warm sunny day with light winds that brought crowds to the beaches and riverfront not only to enjoy seeing a launch but also simply enjoy the nearly perfect weather.
I made a short video of a trip to Playalinda near Titusville in March 2024 to see SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 from pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
My news article from the day: Talk of Titusville: SpaceX Completes Doubleheader
I’m a lot better photographer and writer than filmmaker, but this is what it was like that day.
I found this document online years ago and am putting it up here for posterity.
It is a PDF, read in your browser or download. Be sure to run it through a virus-checker (it’s clean) but do it anyway just to be sure.
It’s often said that the third time is the charm. For Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, the third launch attempt was the one that lifted them off of Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center late Sunday evening.
Twice in previous days, adverse weather had forced mission managers to call off a launch attempt: first, on Friday due to high winds and rough seas beneath the planned ascent corridor. On Saturday, conditions hadn’t improved for a launch attempt, but by late Sunday they were acceptable and the Crew-8 liftoff and journey to the International Space Station was cleared to proceed. The reason for the weather aborts was simple, if a little counterintuitive to the average person: in the case of a launch abort, the crew would have into seas as high as 20 feet in the Atlantic.
Minutes before a warm front brought heavy showers to Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX launched Crew Dragon aboard a Falcon 9 for Axiom Space on a chartered flight to the International Space Station at 4:49 PM EST this evening. The all-European crew is expected to dock at ISS in two days time, and stay aboard the station until February 3, 2024.
SpaceX and the US Space Force launched Falcon Heavy carrying the USSF-52 mission from Kennedy Space Center at 8:07pm Eastern Standard Time under partly-cloudy skies and huge crowds gathered in Titusville and Cape Canaveral. After separating from the core first stage of the rocket, the two side boosters arced across the sky and returned to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station safely some eight and a half minutes later.
SpaceX launched their 29th Commercial Resupply Services mission on November 10, 2023, sending roughly 6,500 pounds of research gear, supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. The company launched a Falcon 9 from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, and the first stage booster landed a few miles south at LZ-1 approximately eight minutes later.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 3, 2023. This mission carried another batch of Starlink satellites to orbit and it was a record-breaking 62nd orbital launch of the year for SpaceX. There have been 46 launches from Cape Canaveral / Kennedy Space Center this year, with all but two coming from SpaceX.
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