17.10.2024

SpaceX targeting Thursday for Space Coast's 71st launch of 2024, one shy of annual record

The countdown is underway: The Space Coast's annual record for orbital rocket launches could get tied Sunday — and shattered a week before Halloween.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center are hosting launches at an unprecedented cadence in 2024. The Cape's annual record hit 31 annual orbital launches in 2021, then nearly doubled to 57 launches in 2022 and increased again to 72 last year.

The 2024 tally already stands at 70 launches. And Thursday, No. 71 is listed on the Eastern Range calendar. SpaceX is targeting a 4½-hour window to launch a Falcon 9 carrying another payload of Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit, navigational warnings indicate.

The Starlink 8-19 launch window extends from 3:55-8:25 p.m. Thursday from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Then on Sunday night, the record-tying 72nd launch of the year may occur. SpaceX is targeting a launch window from 7:06-11:37 p.m. for the similar Starlink 6-61 mission, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows.

Pre-launch navigational warnings have not yet been issued for next week's missions, but information on the Cape's upcoming record-breaking 73rd liftoff may be released in the coming days.

The Space Coast logged launch No. 69 on Monday. That's when NASA's Europa Clipper planetary spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.

Then 14 hours later, a SpaceX Falcon 9 sent up the Starlink 10-10 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Tuesday morning.

"One long weekend brought us two successful launches! The #EuropaClipper lifted off on Monday afternoon aboard a #SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and Starlink 10-10 took flight this morning, bringing the total number of launches this year to 70!" Space Launch Delta 45 officials said in a Tuesday afternoon tweet.

Quelle: Florida Today