More Starlinks today, about 3 PM EDT. This launch completes the first Starlink shell.
B1063.2 on its second flight. (It's a rookie, its previous fight was the Sentinel-6 satellite from Vandenberg in California.) It was spotted being driven across the country on a really big truck, now it's at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
After a short hiatus, Starlink launches are happening again. In a few minutes 48 new improved Starlinks plus 2 Black Sky Earth imaging rideshare satellites.
Booster is B 1060 on its 9th flight, recovery will be on ASOG. Launch from SLC 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Time 3:13 PM PST, 6:13 PM EST
And last night experienced (and sooty) old veteran B 1051 launched from Vandenberg for
its 11th flight !!. That's a new record and 1051 is now the Falcon 9 flight leader. Recovery was successful on OCISLY out in the Pacific west of Orange County or San Diego somewhere. (OCISLY is operating out of Long Beach now.) Payload was putting a bunch of the new improved version 2 Starlinks into polar orbit.
It makes me wonder what the theoretical upper limit is for number of Falcon 9 flights and recoveries. I remember Gwynne saying she thinks that with periodic overhauls, they should be capable of 100. She doesn't expect any of them to fly that many, since Starship should be flying by then.
B1051's 11th Launch:
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1472185489247506434
And its 11th landing!
https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/stat...4814664706
More Starlinks going today, from SLC 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, at 1:51 EDT (10:51 PDT, 17:51 UTC)
Booster is B1060.12 on its 12th flight. Recovery will be on JRTI.
Amazing how quickly the idea of a single orbital booster flying twelve times starts to seem routine. I guess that's the idea, to make flying multiple times as unremarkable for rockets as for airplanes.
You can listen to mission control audio here. It's silent most of the time, since SpaceX practice is for controllers to remain silent if everything is going to plan and only speak up if something is off-spec. The launch director makes periodic callouts. (Other launchers like to have each controller call out everything they are doing.)
SpaceX will launch another batch of Starlinks on Thursday, October 27 at 6:14 PM Pacific time/9:14 Eastern time from launch complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Booster recovery will be on OCISLY.
Booster will be B 1063 on its 8th flight. This booster probably isn't very popular in the asteroid community, since it launched the DART mission that recently spectacularly bashed a little one.
This will be the 49th SpaceX launch of the year, with the 50th set to be Monday's Falcon Heavy launch for the Space Force.(Their launch cadence is faster than one a week.)
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl4-31/
It's easy when you are experienced!
Old veteran B1058.15 rolling out for today's launch,
this booster's 15th! It started out pristine white, but 14 previous launches and landings (including launching Bob and Doug's Demo 1 Crew Dragon test flight to the Space Station) have left it blackened with baked on soot. You can still see the nasa-worm logo from that flight.
https://twitter.com/JennyHPhoto/status/1...6266674177
Here's B1058 lifting off beautifully from Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral with another load of Starlinks.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1604228215718834176
And here it is back on the deck of JRTI after its 15th successful flight, making it the current fleet leader. Gwynne once said she doesn't see any reason why they can't do 100, provided they get periodic overhauls. But she doesn't expect any to do that many, because Starship should be flying before then.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1604231025311129600