Rocket Lab launched for the fourth time from US soil and for the first time this year earlier this morning when it sent the NROL-123 classified payload to orbit from Wallops Island, Virginia. Liftoff was at 3:25 AM EDT after the company’s engineers resolved a brief hold.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station earlier this evening. Liftoff was at 7:05 PM EDT, with the rocket taking a southeasterly direction into late afternoon skies. Around eight and one-half minutes after liftoff, B1077, the booster used for the mission, touched down safely on ASDS Just Read The Instructions. At the same time, the second stage continued to orbit, where it delivered another 23 satellites for the Starlink network.
Thousands of people pass this by every day, yet few take real notice of it. Workers at KSC and visitors on bus tours see it on the right as they get close to the security gate, or maybe they need to get a badge at the badging office beside it. It’s a wonderful artifact and one well worth a close examination: a Mercury-Redstone rocket that were the beginnings of human space flight from Florida.
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.
While Crew-8’s Falcon 9 sits on Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center this morning waiting for weather to improve along its launch corridor, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying 23 more Starlink Version 2 Mini satellites to low-Earth orbit from its other launch pad on the Eastern Range at SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Liftoff at 10:30 AM EST under almost-overcast skies, with the rocket completely disappearing 10-15 seconds after liftoff when it entered the cloud deck and rose towards orbit. About 8.5 minutes later, Booster B1076 completed its 12th mission and landed safely offshore on the company’s autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Just Read The Instructions.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 today from Pad SLC-40 and sent another twenty-four Starlink satellites to orbit. Liftoff occurred at 5:06 PM EST on what might best be described as a “travel brochure day” — crystal clear skies, with a light breeze and temperatures in the high 60s. In other words, the sort of winter day in Florida draws many tourists because the weather is darn near perfect.
SpaceX successfully launched the HTS 113BT telecommunications satellite to orbit from Cape Canaveral this afternoon at 3:11 PM EST for Indonesian company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. Around eight and one-half minutes later, Booster 1067 safely touched down on SpaceX’s Automated Spaceport Droneship “Just Read The Instructions,” (JRTI) which was located offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.
For more in-depth coverage of the launch, go here: SpaceX Launches HT-113BT Satellite; Booster Lands Safely
Note: this is a sample of my writing, and was originally published at Talk of Titusville.
Intuitive Machines has confirmed that the IM-1 Nova-C class lunar lander “Odysseus” touched down on the surface of the Moon today, sometime around 6:30 PM EST. The exact time of touchdown is not yet known, as the company has not yet downloaded and released data from the spacecraft.
The last lunar landing for an American spacecraft on the Moon was December 11th 1972. That was 51 years, 1 months and 26 days ago, which is 18,684 days. Today, Intuitive Machines and Odysseus ended that long gap.
To understand the way things are now, it is helpful to understand how they started and then changed along the way. The Space Force is as much a part of the Space Coast area as is NASA or any of its contractors — in fact, the Space Force has two bases in Brevard County that not only help provide for the nation’s defense, but also to its economy: companies with contracts or other business with the USSF are located in the region and in turn they purchase from their own suppliers, many of them locally or regionally based. That, of course, creates jobs, and those jobs pay good salaries that are then spread out through consumer spending. The end effect is profound.
Notes on source and government security classifications:
Retrieved February 10, 2024 from https://www.37trw.af.mil/About/History/USAF-Installation-Master-Plans-1953/
“The following maps are the official 1953 maps of Air Force bases within the “Zone of the Interior,” now known as the continental United States. Originally classified as “Restricted,” and subsequently classified as “For Official Use Only” due to the restricted classification being phased out. The entire collection was declassified in accordance with official guidance by the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA). The original documents are held at the 37th Training Wing Historical Office.”
After two delays due to high winds, SpaceX launched the PACE Earth-observing satellite to orbit from Cape Canaveral this morning. Seven and one half minutes later, Booster 1081 announced its return to the Space Coast with a sonic boom moments after safely touching down, completing its fourth flight.
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