SpaceX knocks out KSC launch
SpaceX sent up another Starlink launch from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday night while prepping for a unique cargo launch from Cape Canaveral targeting Tuesday.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:10 p.m. from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A on a southerly trajectory carrying another 23 satellites for the company’s growing internet constellation.
The first-stage booster made its 18th flight with past missions that have included the crewed flights of Inspiration4 and Ax-1. It made a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
This marked the sixth launch from the Space Coast for 2024, with SpaceX responsible for five of the six.
Over at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, another Falcon 9 is set to lift off carrying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station on the NG-20 mission.
Originally aiming for a Monday liftoff, SpaceX and NASA pushed the flight back at least one day, now targeting a 12:07 p.m. liftoff Tuesday. It marks the first time SpaceX has handled a Cygnus flight. The 19 previous missions over the last 10 years for Northrop Grumman flew on its Antares rocket from Virginia, the last of which came on Aug. 1, 2023.
The switch to SpaceX for launch services, which will handle at least the next three flights of Cygnus to the ISS, came because of issues with Russian- and Ukrainian-made rocket engines and first-stage parts that are being redeveloped with Firefly Aerospace for a future Antares rocket not expected until at least 2025.
Following launch, the space station’s Canadarm2 will grapple Cygnus and the spacecraft will attach to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading by the Expedition 70 crew.