It was the busiest day for launches ever for commercial companies in the United States, with 3.4 million pounds of combined thrust among three rockets punching their way into space on Thursday with payloads of one military satellite, one lunar probe and six space tourists.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 topped off a crammed launch manifest that saw a United Launch Alliance Atlas V and Blue Origin New Shepard all lighting their candles within 13 hours. Even earlier in the day, a Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched from New Zealand, which also marks a record for worldwide launches.
The Space Coast hosted two of the launches with the ULA and SpaceX missions taking place only 1 1/2 miles apart from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while Blue Origin’s space tourism flight took off from West Texas.
The SpaceX flight sent South Korea’s first lunar mission to space, lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at 7:08 p.m. amid blue Florida skies with nary a rain threat just like the rest of the day’s launches. On board was the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, a probe that aims to orbit the moon for one year with a spate of experiments that will also seek potential future lunar landing sites.
The first-stage booster flew for the sixth time, and the company said it was able to recover it on its droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic.
Turning the clock back to the first light of day, ULA’s Atlas V rocket carrying a payload for the U.S. Space Force launched just before sunrise at 6:29 a.m. from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41.
The launch left behind pink and purple plumes as the rocket blasted higher into orbit. Its payload was the SBIRS GEO 6 satellite, the last of six in a constellation of missile detection satellites, the first of which went into orbit in 2011.
“Hot, straight and normal,” said ULA CEO Tory Bruno on his Twitter account.
People took to social media to post images of the launch and its colorful contrail as it lit up the morning sky.
“Never. Gets. Old! Congrats @ulalaunch for a successful (and beautiful) dawn launch!” wrote Gary Olivi on Twitter.
Later Thursday morning, Blue Origin sent up its NS-22 mission with six civilians on its sixth launch ever with human passengers. Among them was Brevard County millionaire Steve Young, the former CEO of Young’s Communications LLC. He’s also the owner of Pineapples, a restaurant in the Eau Gallie Arts District in Melbourne. Young became the third Central Floridian to fly on a Blue Origin mission following the March flight of Winter Park power couple Marc and Sharon Hagle.
“I asked you all to impress me. You guys impressed me … It’s not something you can just describe — the black and blue. No matter how much you highlight it. It is something you have to experience,” Young said, his voice cracking as he held his hand to his chest during a post-launch press conference. “I’m thankful that I got to experience that. I had, obviously, a very emotional touch from it and I’m gonna leave it at that. Thank you for giving me this.”
Young, an avid fisherman who is a member of the Space Coast Coastal Conservation Association said the trip opened up his world view.
“We start to think about the Earth as all of ours versus I’m just focused on my area of Brevard County. Now it’s more of a worldly thought I guess is a better way to put it,” he said.
The rocket lifted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility at 9:57 a.m. taking its passengers past the Karman line — about 62 miles high — the internationally recognized altitude for someone having gone into space where they were able to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and a view that let them see the blackness of space and curvature of the Earth.
The booster being flown for the eighth time, was able to once again hit the landing pad. The reuse of boosters, similar to SpaceX, is part of Blue Origin’s future plans for its larger New Glenn rockets being built at the company’s facility in Merritt Island.
Blue Origin has now sent up 31 people (including one who flew twice) on the flights that last just over 10 minutes since the first passenger flight in July 2021. That first launch included company founder Jeff Bezos. Others who have flown since include Star Trek’s William Shatner, NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, for whom the New Shepard rocket is named.
Thursday’s other passengers included one of the cofounders of sports YouTube channel Dude Perfect, Coby Cotton; the first Egyptian to fly to space, Sara Sabry, British-American explorer Vanessa O’Brien; the first person from Portugal to space, Mário Ferreira; and Clint Kelly III, an engineer who spent part of his career at DARPA, and is credited with some of the technology that led to driverless cars.
Cost for the flights has not been revealed, but some passengers have flown as guests of Blue Origin, or as part of groups that seek to open up space for those without the means of multimillionaires. Sabry’s ride Thursday came courtesy of Space for Humanity while Cotton’s seat was paid for by MoonDAO.
While the U.S. launch schedule was busy, the global launch manifest saw Rocket Lab actually make the first flight of the day when its Electron rocket took off from New Zealand on the NROL199 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. That flight took place at 1 a.m. EDT, which was 5 p.m. local time.
The four launches in one day beats the three rocket launches seen on both March 29, 2018 and Dec. 21, 2005, according to records maintained by astronomer Jonathan McDowell. None of those were from the U.S., but involved launches from Russia, China, India and French Guinea.
Follow Orlando Sentinel space coverage at Facebook.com/goforlaunchsentinel.
