SpaceX on Wednesday sent up the first of a pair of Space Coast rockets slated for launch over two days, both carrying batches of the company’s Starlink satellites. The second followed suit Thursday evening.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 on the Starlink 6-52 mission carrying 23 Starlink satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:40 p.m.
Ignition of the nine first stage Merlin engines and liftoff of Falcon 9! pic.twitter.com/s8BKYKOsOm
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 18, 2024
The southerly trajectory launch was more visible down Florida’s east coast.
The first-stage booster flew for the seventh time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
It was the 29th launch of the year with all but two coming from SpaceX, which launched the 28th one day earlier with a Falcon 9 rocket also carrying 23 of the internet satellites for SpaceX’s growing constellation lifted off at 5:26 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A amid clear blue skies.
Merlin engine ignition and liftoff of Falcon 9! pic.twitter.com/GVID9qsdUk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 17, 2024
It was the 12th flight of that mission’s first-stage booster, which also made a successful recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic, but on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.
These were the 157th and 158th overall Starlink launches since the first operational deployment of the internet satellites in 2019. Original launches sent up smaller versions with many flying 60 at a time.
While SpaceX awaits a functional version of its Starship and Super Heavy rocket that will be able to fly up more and significantly larger versions, a mid-term solution called the V2 Mini has been flying, but only 23 at a time usually.
With these batches, SpaceX has now sent up more than 6,250 of the satellites, according to statistics tracked by astronomer Jonathan McDowell.
Of those, McDowell states that through March 13, 5,809 were still in orbit, and of those 5,744 have been assessed as working. The Federal Communications Commission in 2022 upped SpaceX’s license to allow for 7,500 satellites in its constellation.
United Launch Alliance has flown the only other two launches other than SpaceX this year — the first Vulcan Centaur in January and the final Delta IV Heavy launch earlier this month. It’s gearing up for its third launch, an Atlas V, with what would be the first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner taking up a pair of NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. It’s aiming for a May 6 liftoff at 10:34 p.m.
SpaceX has several more launches on tap before then, most dedicated to Starlink.
Including Thursday’s Starlink launch, 16 of SpaceX’s 27 launches from the Space Coast will have been for Starlink.
Including its California launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base, they make up 27 of 40 launches for the year as well. The company has stated it could fly as many as 148 orbital missions, which would break its record of 96 flown in 2023.
The majority of those would be from KSC and Canaveral, which could surpass 100 launches for the year.
