A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on March 10, 2024. Starlink satellites are positioned in Low-Earth Orbit. (Joshua Conti/U.S. Space Force)
ORLANDO, Fla. (Tribune News Service) — SpaceX managed a Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral Friday night less than three days since the last rocket blasted off from the same launch pad, setting a turnaround record while also using a first-stage booster for a record-setting 20th flight.
A Falcon 9 carrying 23 more of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40, targeting 9:40 p.m.
SLC-40 was used for the last Starlink launch that came at 1:40 a.m. Wednesday, so the turnaround came only two days and 20 hours after, besting the previous record by nearly 26 hours.
The previous record was set from two launches from SLC-40 on Aug. 3 and Aug. 6 separated by three days, 21 hours, 41 minutes.
The first-stage booster became the first for SpaceX to fly 20 times, having previously flown on two human spaceflight missions — Inspiration4 and Axiom Space’s Ax-1 — as well as the GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Nilesat 301, OneWeb Launch 17, ARABSAT BADR-8 and 12 Starlink missions.
Its first flight was on Nov. 20, 2020.
It’s one of three active boosters that was sitting on 19 launches. A previous booster that successfully flew 19 times toppled over on its way back to Port Canaveral during rough seas.
SpaceX made the record recovery downrange in the Atlantic on its droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
To date, SpaceX has made 297 successful booster recoveries from both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches, with the first coming in December 2015. It has reflown boosters 267 times. It has not had a failed booster landing since February 2021.
This marked the 27th flight from the Space Coast in 2024, with all but two coming from SpaceX, in what could be more than 100 launches among all companies for the year. United Launch Alliance has flown the other two with its new Vulcan Centaur rocket in January and the final Delta IV Heavy mission earlier this week. The year could also see the first ever launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
But SpaceX is the launch leader, and the faster turnaround time at Canaveral is part of Elon Musk’s target to hit 148 flights in 2024 from all of its Florida and California launch pads for its Falcon rockets.
This was SpaceX’s 38th mission of the year among those three pads while also having flown an orbital test mission of its in-development Starship and Super Heavy from its Texas launch facility Starbase.
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