SpaceX launches its 60th Space Coast mission for the year

SpaceX passed 60 launches for the year from the Space Coast early Thursday with a Falcon 9 mission taking a set of five satellites to space.

The rocket flying the BlueBird 1-5 mission launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:52 a.m.

Its first-stage booster flew for the 13th time and brought a sonic boom to parts of Central Florida with a return touchdown back at Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1 eight minutes after liftoff.

The payload is the first five of a new constellation of satellites for Midland, Texas-based AST SpaceMobile, part of a space-based cellular broadband network in low-Earth orbit to be accessible by everyday smartphones for both commercial and government use.

Beta test users will be for AT&T and Verizon with an eventual coverage area across the U.S. and in select global markets.

SpaceX is honing in on breaking its 2023 record for launches from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral. It managed 68 last year.

So far in 2024, it has flown 60 of the 64 total launches among all Space Coast launch pads, with the other four coming from United Launch Alliance.

Of those 60, all but a lone Falcon Heavy launch have been the company’s workhorse, Falcon 9. But the next launch from Kennedy Space Center is likely to be the second Falcon Heavy of the year on a NASA mission to send the Europa Clipper satellite to the icy moon of Jupiter.

That launch isn’t until at least Oct. 13, but preparations at KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A for the mission will begin soon.

The next SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral is slated for Sunday when a Falcon 9 aims to send up the Galileo L-13 mission during a launch window that runs from 6:48-7:09 p.m.

So far this year, SpaceX has flown 43 launches from Cape Canaveral and 17 from KSC.

Three of the KSC launches have been human spaceflights, including the most recent, Polaris Dawn, which launched early Tuesday and is in the midst of a five-day orbital mission that saw the first ever commercial spacewalk.

SpaceX has two more crewed flights planned for 2024, including the Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station as early as Sept. 24. Because of the Europa Clipper mission, though, SpaceX and NASA have opted to shift to Canaveral for that flight, which would be the first human spaceflight from SLC-40.

SpaceX is on pace to break its launch record among all of its pads as well in 2024, having also flown 29 missions from its facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as well as two test orbital launches of its in-development Starship and Super Heavy from its Texas facility Starbase for a total of 91 for the year.

It flew 98 missions across all four pads in 2023, including 91 Falcon 9, five Falcon Heavy and two Starship attempts.

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