SpaceX knocks out 30th Space Coast launch of the year
A SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral Sunday evening marked the 30th of the year on the Space Coast.
A Falcon 9 carrying a communications satellite for Indonesia lifted off rom Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:21 p.m.
The first-stage booster for the mission made its 12th flight, and the company was able to recover it downrange on its droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic, the 201st ever booster recovery among Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters since 2015.
The SATRA satellite for the Indonesian government and Indonesian satellite operator PSN is headed to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite will provide broadband internet and communications capability for public use facilities in Indonesia’s rural regions.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/gGNYVw3IdB — SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 18, 2023
SpaceX has now flown 29 of the 30 launches so far this year from the Space Coast, with the only other coming from Relativity Space and its launch of the 3D-printed Terran 1 back in March.
It’s the 240th orbital launch for the company since 2008 and 128th from Cape Canaveral. SpaceX has had 40 launches so far this year including California liftoffs. More than half have come from SLC-40. The site was leased to SpaceX in 2007 after supporting Titan launches from 1965-2005. It has so far since 2010 flown 194 Space Coast launches including liftoffs from KSC in the last 13 years.
United Launch Alliance, though, is scheduled for its first launch of the year early Wednesday.
On what will be the second-to-last launch of a Delta IV Heavy, ULA looks to fly the NROL-68 mission to send up a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 37 is slated for 3:29 a.m.
The launch cadence keeps a pace that would break the 57 launches on the Space Coast seen in 2022.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
