Alex Bruno
SpaceX tied its previous yearly launch record on Sunday by launching yet another set of Starlink broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The year is just seven months old. Liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at 10:20 am ET put 53 internet-bearing satellites into low-Earth orbit, and the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic. It was the booster’s thirteenth flight overall.
Teams had ample time to travel on schedule thanks to a minor increase in the weather prediction from 50% to 60%. Falcon 9 looked to fly directly into the clouds from several viewing points, which was bad news for onlookers. Over the course of 51 flights, SpaceX has launched almost 3,000 Starlink satellites. For the service, which begins at $110 a month, the business intends to hire thousands more people in order to expand coverage to the whole globe.
With its launch on Sunday, SpaceX tied its previous record established in 2021 for most launches between this location and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX is very certain to surpass 40 flights in total and help the Space Coast reach the unofficial target of 50+ missions by the end of 2022 with at least a dozen more launches scheduled through the end of this year.
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2022/07/17/spacex-launches-53-starlink-internet-satellites-florida/10071159002/?utm_source=ourcommunitynow&utm_medium=web
The launch was also the 31st for the Space Coast in 2022, matching the previous high set in 2017. This kind of cadence hasn’t been seen since the 1960s, at the height of the Space Race, when the Eastern Range was used to launch a wide range of ballistic missiles and rockets.
Starlink internet satellites are scheduled to be launched again as soon as Sunday, July 24, when the next launch is scheduled. Weather predictions and launch windows are anticipated after Wednesday. It is planned for the mission to launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
Source: Florida Today
