SpaceX plans to launch Falcon Heavy on Saturday, landing within a week with three launches

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida. – SpaceX has scheduled three launches for the second week of January as the company heads into the new year furiously.

On Monday night, SpaceX was aimed at coast-to-coast launches in Florida and California. Due to weather conditions, only the Florida launch went as planned.

First, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 11:50 pm ET using the OneWeb Launch 16 mission from Spaceport 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The weather in Florida was great for a Monday night launch. Launch meteorologists for the 45th Weather Squadron predicted less than a 10% chance that the weather would cause bushes.

After launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster landed at the Space Force Station at Cape Canaveral, completing the second launch and landing of the rocket.

Those on Florida’s Space Coast could probably hear and feel the Falcon 9 booster as it broke the sound barrier on re-entry. Sonic booms from rocket landings have been known to travel as far inland as the Orlando area.

Satellite operator OneWeb plans to provide global high-speed internet in 2023 using a constellation of satellites similar to SpaceX’s Starlink service.

In December, SpaceX launched another batch of OneWeb satellites.

Following the OneWeb Launch 15 mission last month, the company said its constellation is 80% complete with three more first-generation constellation launches planned.

On the opposite side of the country, the weather was less favorable for SpaceX.

SpaceX planned to launch another Falcon 9 with 51 Starlink satellites Monday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California but had to stop because of the weather.

The outlook for California has been less than favorable as the state becomes more dangerous. slams shut by a parade of atmospheric rivers.

Now the company is targeting Sunday at 8:18 p.m. PT to try again.

When that happens, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster will return to Earth and land on an unmanned craft called “Of Course I Still Love You” located in the Pacific Ocean.

This Starlink launch will add to the growing constellation of thousands of SpaceX satellites providing space internet around the world.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy to Deliver Arrows Saturday Night

Cherry at the top of the launch calendar this week will be the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy mission USSF-67 for the US Space Force.

SpaceX plans to launch part of the USSF-67 mission spacecraft, including the Space Force Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM satellite, no earlier than Saturday. An ESPA 3A long life propulsion engine is also on board this launch and contains several experimental payloads as part of the sharing mission.

The launch window opens at 5:00 pm ET and runs until 9:00 pm ET.

Space Force Launch meteorologists are predicting an 80 to 90 percent chance of good launch conditions on Saturday night.

The front is expected to pass through central Florida on Friday, bringing rain and possible thunderstorms, according to the launch forecast, but it will quickly pass through the spaceport area, leaving cooler, drier air in the region.

Saturday will see mostly clear skies and temperatures around 40 degrees near the Space Force Station at Cape Canaveral. The only weather issue in the launch window will be gusty winds.

Before NASA’s first launch of the Space Launch System rocket in November. Falcon Heavy was the most powerful rocket in the world.

Launching a Falcon Heavy with triple rocket boosters is a unique experience that can be seen in person.

The Falcon Heavy has 27 Merlin engines and three first stage boosters compared to the Falcon 9, with one first stage booster and nine Merlin engines. Falcon Heavy produces over 5 million pounds of thrust at launch to leave the planet.

SpaceX places its rocket boosters on land and at sea to reuse equipment, cutting launch costs by millions of dollars.

The first stages of the Falcon Heavy with three boosters perform a choreographed aerial ballet in the sky to return to Earth. One booster can land on a drone ship at sea, and two boosters return to Cape Canaveral to land at Landing Zone 1 in near-perfect unison.

As the rocket boosters return to earth, the sound echoes across the Florida coastline, causing sonic booms.

For this launch, two side boosters will land at Cape Canaveral and the middle booster will not return.

No rest for rocket launches

This year will be even busier for SpaceX and the space industry in general.

The company said Monday that it has four rockets at four launch pads across the country and two spacecraft in orbit.

A SpaceX Starship spacecraft and a Super Heavy booster were folded up in Texas for testing, a Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy were upright in Florida, and another Falcon 9 was waiting to launch in California.

In addition, there were two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in orbit, one of which was leaving the International Space Station after a payload mission, while the Crew Dragon remained docked at the orbiting laboratory.

Elon Musk’s space company kicked off 2023 last week. with the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket for sharing launch of more than 100 small satellites into low earth orbit.

SpaceX made 61 launches in 2022, launching rockets nearly every week of the year. The company ended December with seven additional launches.

According to SpaceX, after 2022The Falcon 9 holds the world record for the most launches of the same ship type in a single year.

Musk tweeted this week SpaceX is approaching an orbital flight test of its starship spacecraft and Super Heavy launch vehicle. The huge spacecraft was being developed and tested in Texas, where SpaceX plans to launch Starship into orbit for the first time this year.

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