This week will be another week of Starlink launches from SpaceX after a short break from the company to launch some missions commercially, how nice of them. With that, according to the current launch manifest, two Starlink missions are scheduled to lift off from the same launch pad in less than three days.
This Week’s Launches:
- August 20 (Tuesday)
- SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-5 | 5:36 A.M. ET
- SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
- SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-5 | 5:36 A.M. ET
- August 22 (Thursday)
- CASC | Long March 7A | Unknown Payload | 8:25 A.M. ET
- LC-201, Wenchang Space Launch Site, China
- CASC | Long March 7A | Unknown Payload | 8:25 A.M. ET
- August 23 (Friday)
- SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 8-6 | 3:46 A.M. ET
- SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
- SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-5 | 1:00 A.M. PT
- SLC-4E | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
- SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 8-6 | 3:46 A.M. ET
Spaceflight news roundup
NASA share members of SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission: Lifting off no earlier than February of 2025, the mission will be commended by NASA’s Anne McClain and piloted by NASA’s Nichole Ayers, with JAXA’s Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos’ Kirill Peskov serving as mission specialist. This will take the spot of what was hopefully Boeing’s first operational Starliner mission, however that has now been delayed due to continued spacecraft issues. [NASA]
Dawn Aerospace hoping for supersonic test flight: The New Zealand company is hoping to develop a refreshed variation of a commercial launcher for low Earth orbit – launching rockets from a super sonic aircraft. After completing a sub-sonic sub-scale test campaign, the company announced its next campaign will feature speeds faster than the SR-71. [Dawn Aerospace]
SpaceX wants to build three new LZs in Florida: The new landing zones will be built at SpaceX’s existing launch sites LC-39A and SLC-40 but no reason for their construction has been given. SpaceX’s current LZ-1 and LZ-2 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station go regularly unused for most of the year and the company’s future Starship rocket plans to use catch arms on its launch pad for recovery. [Florida Today]
Two launches within three days from SLC-40
SpaceX is no stranger to breaking records with its Falcon 9 rocket. Every few months it seems like we’re looking at another reuse record that is getting higher and higher into the 20s. However, a record that isn’t broken as often are turnaround timelines for single launch pads.
The company operates two launch pads from Florida, the historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center and SLC-40 a few miles south a Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SLC-40 has seen 70% of SpaceX East Coast launches, 38, thanks to launch pad improvements and the lack of any missions the need long run-up planning like crew (for now).
On Tuesday, SpaceX plans to launch its first Starlink mission of the week at about 5:36 A.M. ET from SLC-40. The company’s second Starlink launch of the week is set for Friday at about 3:46 A.M. ET, also from SLC-40. That makes it a two day, 22 hour and 10 minute turnaround for the launch pad.
The last record I could find for SLC-40’s turnaround, which came from NASASpaceflight, was three days 17 hours and 24 minutes set earlier this year. So as long as there’s no delays, this week we could see a new record for how fast to launch two missions from the same launch site.
A record I’m sure we’ll see shattered more and more as Starship development continues.
