It was a good day to have a good day here in Florida, and that’s exactly what NASA, SpaceX and Crew 10 had today at Kennedy Space Center.
Falcon 9 lifted off, carrying three astronauts and one cosmonaut toward orbit and the International Space Station just as the sun was starting to set in the west. Some seven and a half minutes later, SpaceX booster B1090 completed its duty for the day by landing at LZ-1 in Cape Canaveral, 8.8 miles south of LC-39A.
The FAA released a statement today announcing the draft results of an Environmental Assessment for more than doubling the allowable launch operations at SpaceX’s facility at Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral starting in 2026. The assessment also contains information on the construction and operation of a landing zone at SLC-40 with up to 34 first-stage booster landings at the new landing zone annually.
The document outlines a Draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI).
Talk of Titusville first reported on SpaceX’s plans to build a new landing zone at SLC-40 in January of this year. In 2023, the 2-pad launch site has been allocated to Cocoa, Florida based Vaya Space and also Phantom Space through the Department of the Air Force’s Launch Pad Allocation Strategy (LPAS), a program designed to support the commercial space market and demand at the Eastern Range.
The FAA is posting for public review a Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) analyzing the SpaceX proposal to increase Falcon 9 operations from 50 to up to 120 per year from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Draft EA also reviews the construction of a first-stage booster landing zone at the site with up to 34 landings per year.
In order to meet the Department of the Air Force (DAF) National Environmental Policy Act requirements, the FAA has also posted a link to the Draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for public comment on behalf of DAF.
A virtual public meeting will be held on April 16 and the public comment period closes on April 24, 2025.
That assessment can be found here:
In it some preliminary conclusions are found:
“The FAA has preliminarily concluded that the Proposed Action would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment.”
[The FAA has preliminarily concluded that] “the Proposed Action is not expected to contribute in any substantive 17 manner to adverse cumulative effects to supplies of natural resources or energy use.”
“Cumulative effects of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions with the Proposed 13 Action would not contribute a noticeable incremental effect from hazardous materials and waste.”
“Reasonably foreseeable future actions in the area, such as SLS launches at LC-39B, may require temporary closures of both the refuge and the seashore by USFWS and NPS. These temporary closures are related to crowd control and access for emergency services and are not related to a public safety hazard from a launch. If any such closures were to occur, they would be both infrequent and temporary in nature. As a result, the cumulative effects of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions with the Proposed Action are not expected to result in a significant impact to [publicly owned park and recreation areas that are open to the general public.] resources.”
“The Proposed Action would not result in significant adverse cumulative land use impacts.”
“There would be no significant cumulative effects to coastal resources.”
“Several of the projects [..] include construction and development in both undisturbed and 37 previously disturbed areas. Disturbance to existing launch areas or other developed and semi-developed 38 The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation Cumulative Effects Draft Environmental Assessment 4-10 March 2025 Falcon 9 Operations at SLC-40 sites would have little effect on wildlife because these areas have limited habitat value.”
“The Proposed 1 Action and some of the actions in Table 4-2 involve clearing of native upland habitat. Some of the actions 2 in Table 4-2 could also potentially involve clearing and/or filling of a limited amount of wetland habitat. 3 The Proposed Action would not directly affect wetlands; potential impacts would consist of 4 construction -related sedimentation from runoff.”
“Cumulative loss and fragmentation of native upland and 5 wetland habitats may cause long-term effects on wildlife breeding, roosting, or foraging, particularly of 6 individuals with limited mobility and those without corridors to another suitable habitat. Construction 7 noise and general disturbance could cause similar impacts, but the effects would be temporary.”
A virtual public meeting will be held on April 16 and the public comment period closes on April 24, 2025.
The FAA invites interested parties to submit comments on the Draft EA. Instructions on how to submit comments can be found on the FAA webpage linked here:
https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/SpaceX_Falcon_SLC_40_EA.
Interested parties are invited to submit comments on the Draft EA by April 24, 2025.
The FAA will hold a virtual public meeting on the Draft EA on April 16, 2025, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM (Eastern). Interested parties must register to join the virtual public meeting. Registration is now available at the link below.
RegistrationLink:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8qtN8bzPS1eApVobqo8poA
Dial-in phone number: 888-788-0099 (Toll Free)
Webinar ID: 853 9161 5696
Passcode: 743444
If any accommodation for public meeting is needed (such as additional translation services), please submit a request by April 4, 2025 to SpaceXFalconSLC40@icf.com.
It wasn’t the launch we wanted, but it was a launch that we needed after the disappointment of Crew 10 scrubbing earlier in the evening last night: SpaceX launched Starlink with another batch of 21 Starlink satellites from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Wednesday evening. Liftoff was at 10:35 PM ET, with Falcon 9 taking the southeasterly familiar path towards The Bahamas as has been the case with all other Starlink Group 20 launches. The mission was successful.
After multiple delays, Falcon 9 finally flew from SLC-40, ending a rare dry spell of launches from the Eastern Range. This mission was initially delayed for checkouts after an issue with Falcon 9 booster B1086 and Starlink 12-20. On that mission, the booster experienced a fuel leak and was destroyed by fire shortly after landing on March 2 and SpaceX spent time reviewing data from that event and also making sure it would not repeat itself during last night’s flight.
High winds at ground level scrubbed a launch attempt on Monday. SpaceX announced an attempt but did not fuel the Falcon 9 used for Starlink12-21 on Tuesday, following the launch of NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base and also because of the then-upcoming launch of Crew-10 (which was delayed last night after a hydraulic issue on the launch pad.)
After completing its part in the ascent of the mission, booster B1069 landed successfull on ASDS A Shortfall Of Gravitas after its 22nd flight. There have no reports of a repetition of the issue that ended B1086’s lifetime. ASOG and B1069 will now travel to Port Canaveral where the booster will be unloaded, transported to SpaceX’s refurbishment facility at Kennedy Space Center and ostensibly prepared for its next flight at some future date.
Some days you’re the bug, other days you’re the windshield.
The scheduled Wednesday launch of the Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station was scrubbed last night with a little more than forty six minutes left on the countdown clock. The delay stemmed from a malfunction in the hydraulic system of a ground support clamp arm attached to the Falcon 9 rocket, located at SpaceX’s Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The crew—comprising NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov—departed the Dragon spacecraft following the cancellation and will remain in Florida for the time being awaiting a new launch window.
The earliest rescheduled launch window is now set for no sooner than Friday, March 14th at 7:06 PM ET in an instantaneous window. That date is dependant on remediations of the hydraulic issue at the launch pad. At this time, the Falcon 9 vehicle itself and the Crew Dragon the astronauts will fly aboard is in good condition.
Weatherwise, the U.S. Space Force 45th Weather Squadron has not released a new Launch Mission Execution forecast for tomorrow. General forecasts for the Cape are showing a minimal chance of rain with easterly winds between 5-10 MPH with gusts not being a great deal higher than that. Keep in mind that the general forecasts do not consider launch criteria and cover much larger area than the ascent corridor at and above LC-39A, so the 45th may have a different outlook on the probability of acceptable conditions.
Another consideration will be winds and seas along the ascent corridor. That must be within acceptable conditions. Reliable forecasts for winds at the altitudes Falcon 9 will be at are not available at this time. Bottom line: wait for the 45th Weather Squadron’s forecast to draw any conclusions about weather conditions for the launch.
Should the Crew-10 mission proceed on March 14, the preceding Crew-9 team—consisting of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—would undock from the space station NET Tuesday, March 18. That timeline remains contingent on suitable weather conditions at the designated splashdown zones off Florida’s coast and may change over the next few days.
Eric Schmidt, renowned for his tenure as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, is now the Chief Executive Officer of Relativity Space. Schmidt has also infused capital into the cash-starved company, giving it life and the means to finish its Terran-R medium lift rocket. That rocket is planned to fly from Cape Canaveral as early as next year.
Déjà vu all over again: SpaceX launched another 21 Starlink satellites from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this evening. Liftoff was at 9:24 PM EST, with Falcon 9 taking the southeasterly familiar path towards The Bahamas as has been the case with all other Starlink Group 20 launches.
UPDATE: SpaceX announced March 3 that post-landing, there were issues with Booster B1086:
The first stage booster returned to Earth and landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean ~250 nautical miles off the coast of Florida. Following the successful landing, an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs which resulted in it tipping over. While disappointing to lose a rocket after a successful mission, the team will use the data to make Falcon even more reliable on ascent and landing
Déjà vu all over again: SpaceX launched another 21 Starlink satellites from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station this evening. Liftoff was at 9:24 PM EST, with Falcon 9 taking the southeasterly familiar path towards The Bahamas as has been the case with all other Starlink Group 20 launches.
Booster B1086 was on duty for its fifth mission this evening, which is completed successfully when it touched down aboard ASDS ‘Just Read The Instructions’ about 8.25 minutes after launching. Unfortunately, according to SpaceX, the booster was “lost” after “an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs which resulted in it tipping over.”
Tonight’s landing was the 419th booster landing and the 112th landing on JRTI.
Twenty-five odd seconds after the booster landed, Falcon 9’s second stage achieved its initial orbit, and at T+ 00:53:58, the second stage refired its Merlin Vacuum engine in a brief orbit-rounding burn prior to payload deployment.
At 10:29 PM EST, SpaceX announced a successful payload deployment, marking the completion of another successful mission for the company, save for the loss of a relatively new booster.
Starlink satellites are part of SpaceX’s initiative to create a global broadband internet network. Some key facts:
Design: Starlink satellites are flat-panel devices equipped with multiple high-throughput antennas and solar panels. The design allows them to be launched in bulk.
Orbit: They operate in low Earth orbit (LEO) at altitudes ranging from approximately 340 km to 1,200 km. This lowers latency compared to traditional satellites in geostationary orbit.
Constellation: SpaceX has deployed thousands of satellite to date, creating a constellation that can provide extensive coverage and capacity across the globe.
Communication: They use advanced phased-array technology for beam forming, allowing for high-speed data transmission to ground stations and user terminals.
Overall, Starlink provides high-speed, low-latency internet access, especially in rural and underserved areas to nearly five million customers in over 200 countries.
Starlink serves over five million customers in over 100 countries worldwide. The service currently has more than 7,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
SpaceX’s Starlink 12-21 is planned to launch early Wednesday morning.
Far from being anachronistic and out of date, black and white photography is as it ever was: a timeless art form that continues to influence modern photography, retaining its importance in the modern era.
In the age of high-resolution digital color imagery at our fingertips, black and white photography remains a captivating and at-once surreal form of art. The absence of color forces both the photographer and the viewer to focus on composition, contrast, detail and the intricate interplay of light and shadow without the distractions of hue and color. Tone becomes replaces color, another way of saying ‘millions of shades of grey.’ Ironically, that’s just like life: millons of shades of grey.
And everything in between.
SpaceX completed a doubleheader today; not that many people close to the launch site saw it.
At 6:13 PM, Falcon 9 lifted off out of a gloopy fog at Launch Complex 39A and lofted the Maxar 4 / WorldView 5 and WorldView 6 satellites into orbit on the second successful mission of the day for the company. The rising rocket was seen up the east coast as far as New York City, but here locally, fleeting glimpses was the order of the day.
In a milestone for space exploration and commercial spaceflight, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 36 at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday.
At 2:03 a.m. EST, the 320-foot-tall New Glenn finally roared to life after two holds and was propelled by seven Blue Origin BE-4 engines fueled by liquid oxygen and methane.
Spectators crowded the beaches and riverfront to witness the spectacle, as the rocket ascended gracefully into a cloudy sky obscuring a nearly full moon.
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