Space

Falcon 9 rishing from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in 2023.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

Fans looking to the see the first launch of 2024 from the Space Coast won’t have to wait very long, as Wednesday, January 3rd, SpaceX plans to launch Ovzon-3, a mobile communication satellite for Stockholm based Ovzon. Five days after that, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan is slated to make its debut, followed by the crewed Axoim-3 mission from Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX also has more Starlink satellite launches planned, but no dates have yet been announced.

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Timelapse of SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Starlink 6-33 to orbit as seen from Titusville’s Rotary Park on December 28, 2023. 

Less than three hours after SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy lifted off tonight at Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A, the company launched a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 carrying the Starlink 6-36 mission. Falcon Heavy lifted off at 8:07pm local time, and two hours and forty-eight minutes later, Falcon 9 roared off its pad at 11:01pm. Roughly eight and one-half minutes later, the booster used for this flight successfully touched down aboard the droneship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ near the Bahamas, marking SpaceX’s third successful booster soft-landing of the night.

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Timelapse of the staging sequence of Falcon Heavy as it soared to orbit off of the Florida coast on December 28, 2023. Top right are the final moments at full power, with bottom left the separation sequence and start of the side boosters returning to Cape Canaveral.

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.

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Timelapse of SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Starlink 6-33 to orbit as seen from Titusville’s Rotary Park on December 28, 2023. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

Less than three hours after SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy lifted off tonight at Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A, the company launched a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 carrying the Starlink 6-36 mission. Falcon Heavy lifted off at 8:07pm local time, and two hours and forty-eight minutes later, Falcon 9 roared off its pad at 11:01pm. Roughly eight and one-half minutes later, the booster used for this flight successfully touched down aboard the droneship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ near the Bahamas, marking SpaceX’s third successful booster soft-landing of the night.

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Falcon Heavy Carrying USSF-52 Lifts Off At Kennedy Space Center, December 28, 2023
Photo: Richard Gallagher / Florida Media Now

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.

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Falcon Heavy side boosters during their final landing burn in January 2023.
Photo: Charles Boyer

Folks who are interested in seeing Falcon Heavy launch tomorrow evening still have a chance to purchase tickets from the closest vantage point available to the general public: the Apollo Saturn V Center is 4.0 miles from the launch pad, and that location gives viewers the most intense launch viewing experience possible. The returning boosters will be 11.3 miles to the south, with a clear view of their final approach and landing burns.

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SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Starlink 6-32 lifts off at 12:33am EST on December 23. 2023
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

SpaceX launched a record-breaking mission shortly after midnight this morning at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station when it lofted 33 Starlink satellites to orbit in a mission the company designated Starlink 6-32: it flew a Falcon 9 booster successfully for the 19th time.

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Artist’s concept of a SpaceX commercial lunar lander on the Moon. 
Image: SpaceX, via NASA

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Doug Wheelock recently participated in testing a sub-scale mockup elevator for SpaceX’s Starship human landing system (HLS) at the company’s Hawthorne, California headquarters. Astronaut input is a vital component of spacecraft design, giving the people who will actually use the equipment a chance to test progress so far and to provide feedback from a crew perspective. This feedback often informs and evolves the design.

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