SpaceX and ULA are set to increase the Space Coast's rocket launch rate in 2018

Humans could finally vault off Space Coast launch pads next year, restoring the nation's crewed spaceflight capabilities while joining up to three dozen other uncrewed missions from Florida's spaceport.

A joint strike force of organizations – SpaceX, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, and NASA – are progressing toward crewed test launches to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program in the second half of next year.

If schedules hold, SpaceX will launch a two-person crew in August on a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft from KSC's famous launch pad 39A, a feat not seen since space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from there with astronauts in July 2011. Boeing intends on putting a pair of humans into space with its Starliner capsule in November and will get a boost on ULA's Atlas V rocket from the Cape's Launch Complex 41.

[See every Space Coast rocket launch and landing of 2017]

[See SpaceX's 27-engine Falcon Heavy rocket before it launches from KSC next year]

But flying humans on spacecraft is a tricky, dangerous business and delays of the crewed missions to 2019 are extremely possible and even likely. Notwithstanding, launch fans still have much to look forward to as uncrewed test flights are in the works, too. Both SpaceX and Boeing plan to launch their capsules to the space station in April and August, respectively, to gather data and experience before embarking on full-fledged missions with people on board.

The crewed and uncrewed missions are part of a larger manifest of up to 36 launches in 2018, Air Force Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, commander of the 45th Space Wing and director of the Eastern Range, told FLORIDA TODAY.

"We're estimating between 34 and 36 launches for next year," Monteith said. "We're ready to rock and roll next year."

That would comfortably surpass the 19 launch operations supported this year, though up to 32 were originally expected. Next year's projections include a few classified, submarine-launched Trident missile tests, and delays due to hardware issues or mission requirements could also deflate the total.

The ambitious manifest, however, will still catapult excitement for spectators as all modern rockets built by SpaceX and ULA will launch from the Space Coast next year.

SpaceX

Before the Commercial Crew missions, an aerial ballet of three 156-foot-tall SpaceX boosters will take place over Space Coast skies after the company's much-vaunted Falcon Heavy launches from KSC's pad 39A in January. The demonstration mission of the heavy-lift, 27-engine rocket is slated to launch a few weeks after a late December test fire of the Merlin main engines.

After liftoff, the 40-foot-wide vehicle's two side cores will separate and descend for a propulsive landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Landing Zone 1, generating twice as much sonic boom energy as a Falcon 9 mission and doubling up on the visual spectacle that is a typical booster landing.

The rocket's haul will be a dramatic undertaking, too – CEO Elon Musk said his red 2008 Tesla Roadster would be encapsulated in the 230-foot-tall rocket's payload fairing and will play David Bowie's "Space Oddity"during liftoff. Its destination: deep space, according to Musk.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether the Federal Aviation Administration will approve – or has already approved – the liftoff of the Roadster, which retailed for around $100,000 in 2008.

When Falcon Heavy ignites its engines on the inaugural flight, its 5.1 million pounds of thrust will make it the most powerful rocket in the world.

Though SpaceX more than doubled the previous year's launch count in 2017, officials expect the company to add even more capacity to its manifest, in part thanks to its two operational Eastern Range pads. The Cape's Launch Complex 40, which was damaged in a September 2016 explosion, was officially reactivated on Dec. 15 when a Falcon 9 rocket launched on the 13th resupply mission to the ISS.

Still on the books is the unfinished Zuma mission that was delayed in November because of issues with the fairing. Though details on the secretive government payload by Northrop Grumman are scarce, the launch is expected sometime in January, possibly before the Falcon Heavy liftoff.

Falcon 9s, also referred to as "single-stick" rockets, will also vault more uncrewed resupply missions to the space station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services Contract; launch at least two satellites for Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES in the first half of the year; and tackle the launch of a NASA planet-hunting satellite known as TESS, or Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, no earlier than March.

All in all, the Space Coast can expect SpaceX to add at least a few launches beyond its local 2017 total, which stands at 13.

United Launch Alliance

ULA has a busy manifest, too – all of its rockets, save for the older Delta II, will launch from Cape Canaveral in 2018.

The joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin will kick off its year in mid-January with the launch of a ballistic missile detecting satellite for the Air Force's Space Based Infrared System constellation, or SBIRS, on an Atlas V rocket. Continuing tensions with North Korea and its missile development program tend to elevate interest in SBIRS satellites, which are built by Lockheed Martin.

ULA is then expected to fly at least a half-dozen more times from the Space Coast, including on a mission that adds yet another heavy-lift, three-core rocket to the local manifest: the Delta IV Heavy.

[Launch delay ends United Launch Alliance's 2017 schedule]

[See every Space Coast rocket launch and landing of 2017]

The mighty rocket will boost NASA's Parker Solar Probe from Launch Complex 37 in late July on the agency's first-ever mission to "touch" the sun. The car-sized spacecraft will embark on the nearly seven-year voyage to orbit our yellow dwarf from distances as close as 3.9 million miles, generating humanity's closest-ever observations of a star. Its mission: to increase understanding of the sun and its changes, which can propagate out into the solar system and impact Earth.

And if schedules hold, ULA will also launch the next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-S, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on an Atlas V rocket in March. The previous iteration that launched in 2016, known as GOES-R, generated noticeable buzz in the weather community thanks to the leap in forecasting capabilities that new GOES satellites provide.

GOES-R became GOES-16 after it was activated and tested in orbit, and GOES-S will follow the same pattern to become GOES-17 after launch.

Other launches throughout the year – aside from uncrewed and crewed tests for ISS missions – include at least three more missions for the Air Force, which are slated to launch on Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.

Special 2017 launch section

See a commemorative wrap-up section of 2017's rocket launches from the Space Coast in Sunday's print edition of FLORIDA TODAY. The section includes photos and details about all 19 launches.