SpaceX cancels launch attempt overnight from Cape Canaveral – Orlando Sentinel

SpaceX canceled an attempted Starlink launch overnight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that would have set a company record among launches from the same platform.

The Falcon 9 carrying the company’s 54 other satellites is set to come online for liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 in Canaveral at 12:40 a.m. Friday, but mission control labeled “hold, hold, hold” with 40 seconds left in the hour. the countdown.

The cause of the peeling wasn’t immediately known, but SpaceX has a backup opportunity early Saturday at 12:15 a.m.

The Weather Squadron forecast for the Space Delta 45 launch predicts a file 85% chance of good launch conditions for the backup window.

The booster for this mission is set to join the one used last Sunday as a record holder, aiming to fly it for the 16th time and bring it back again on an A Shortfall of Gravitas drone.

SpaceX’s midnight launch from Cape Canaveral sets a boosting record

Even with the one-day delay, if it did launch, it would be the SLC 40’s fastest turnaround ever, coming just five days and 17 minutes since launch last Sunday before midnight. The previous record was set by five days, three hours and 38 minutes in February.

It will be the 35th launch from Space Coast in 2023, and it’s also on track to break the record for platforms at Canaveral and the adjacent Kennedy Space Center.

It’s mid 2023 and we’re proud to announce that we’re on track to surpass last year’s record. With 32 successful launches under our belt, the sky is clearly not our limit.

^ Chief Airman Samuel Baker, Bobby Foreman

32 launched as of June 2023. pic.twitter.com/UGeuTstyyc

– Space Launch Delta 45 (@SLDelta45) July 13, 2023

The facilities have had 57 takeoffs between SpaceX, the United Launch Alliance, Astra Space and NASA’s Space Launch System in 2022. They are on track to launch 64 in 2023 with 32 of the 34 so far coming from SpaceX with the other pair coming from Relativity Space with its Terran 1 rocket. The 3D-printed March and penultimate recent ULA launch of the Delta IV Heavy.

Elon Musk’s company has also been busy on the West Coast, so with this launch, Canaveral, KSC, and Vandenberg Space Force Base will have launched 47 orbital launches to date between their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

This is separate from its attempt to launch the massive Starship and Super Heavy from its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

For this year, Musk said SpaceX could reach 100, with the majority coming from Cape Canaveral and KSC.

The majority of those support the growing Starlink constellation, which through this group will amount to more than 4,800 missions that have launched over 94 missions since the first operational deployment in 2019, according to the statistics it tracks. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell. Last year, the FCC lifted SpaceX’s license to allow up to 7,500.

With this launch, SpaceX will have successfully flown the Falcon 9 238 times since 2010 with its only in-flight failure back in 2015. It has also managed six Falcon Heavy launches since 2018 including two so far this year. The third is coming, targeting late July.

So by launching its first two Falcon 1 rockets in 2008 and 2009, SpaceX will have managed 246 successful orbital missions if this one succeeds. Its booster program will see 207 recoveries between the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets allowing for 180 re-lights.