A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Starlink 6-51 mission on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 9:24PM (UTC). LC-39AKennedy Space Center Florida, A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation SpaceXs project for space-based Internet communication system.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

SpaceX to launch Maxar WorldView Legion 1 & 2 mission for leading resolution and accuracy

Also scheduled for launch on Wednesday a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the WorldView Legion 1 & 2 mission on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 6:30PM (UTC). WorldView Legion is a constellation of Earth observation satellites built and operated by Maxar. Constellation is planned to consist of 6 satellites in both polar and mid-inclination orbits, providing 30 cm-class resolution.

Space Launch Complex 4E has witnessed the launch of 141 rockets, including 141 orbital launch attempts, while Vandenberg SFB, California, has been the site for 752 rocket launches. The launch cost is $52 Million.

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SpaceX to have 2 launches on Wednesday of Starlink smallsats and Maxar WorldView Legion 1 & 2 SatNews - SatNews

Image: Jared Locke / Space Explored

This week were only seeing three launches, all of which are from SpaceX and two of those are for Starlink missions out of Florida. About what we expect from a company doing the majority of Earths launch capability.

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Continuing their three week streak of launching three or more Falcon 9s a week, SpaceX once again has three rockets scheduled to launch this week. For what Ive seen, they are the only company currently attempting any launches in the next seven days.

A rare quiet week from China it is I guess.

The first mission will be a commercial flight for DigitalGlobe with two of its next generation Worldview Legion spacecrafts. Because of the light weight of these two spacecraft, the booster will be return to LZ-4 after launching.

Following this mission well be back to the status quo of Starlink flights from Florida. The most annoying part of all of this is that SpaceX is seemingly skipping over Starlink Group 6-50. Every manifest Ive looked at shows them launching 6-51 and -52 this weekend continuing on with -53.

Its not uncommon for Starlink missions to fly out of order, but this is the first Ive noticed them skipping a number entirely. What does this mean? Nothing, maybe, probably nothing.

Anyways, these three missions will bring SpaceX up to 42 total launches for 2024 and will continue to push that launch rate in the right direction to meet its 148 launch goal.

While I was traveling a few weeks ago, Elon Musk gave an update on SpaceXs goal to make life multi-planetary with its Starship rocket down at Starbase. While there wasnt a whole lot new, there were some things worth mentioning.

In case you were wondering, the state of SpaceXs martian colony goal is strong with Musk restating how important it is that humanity has a backup. Hes hoping in the next 20 years SpaceX will be able to launch regular missions to the Red Planet, hoping eventually make it self sustaining and independent from Earth.

To do this, SpaceX will need to get Starship operational and upgrade it. A Starship 2 version is already well talked about and construction of those ships is underway. Starship 2 will see slight extensions in its propellent tanks and various other improvements SpaceX has learned launching its first generation Starship rockets.

Starship 3 is where things will get crazy, drastically expanding the length of its tanks to be more than 500 feet tall. However, Musk states that more increases could come to Starship 3 depending on how Starship 2 does.

So if youre looking at Starship and thinking how can this get any bigger? Well, it can, and it probably will.

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This Week in Launch: A lonely SpaceX week - Space Explored

The Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) space vehicle was successfully encapsulated April 8, 2024, ahead of its scheduled launch as the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-62 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., marking a major milestone on its upcoming launch into low Earth orbit. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX launched a military weather satellite designed to replace aging satellites from a program dating back to the 1960s. The United States Space Force-62 (USSF-62) mission featured the launch of the first Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) spacecraft.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:25 a.m. PDT (10:25 a.m. EDT (1425 UTC), which was the opening of a 10-minute launch window.

The booster supporting this National Security Space Launch (NSSL) mission, B1082 in the SpaceX fleet, made its third flight after previously launching the Starlink 7-9 and 7-14 missions this year.

Were absolutely thrilled be out here on the Central Coast, with a superb team primed and ready to launch the USSF-62 satellite. It has an important mission ahead of it and were excited for flight-proven Falcon 9 to deliver the satellite to orbit, said Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader for the Space System Commands Launch Execution Delta, in a statement. And on this mission, were using a first-stage booster whose history is purely commercial.

About eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 touched down at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4). This was the 17th land landing in California and the 295th booster landing for SpaceX.

A significant milestone for the company on the USSF-62 mission was the use of flight-proven payload fairings, which will be a first for an NSSL mission. They previously flew on the USSF-52 mission, which featured the launch of the X-37B spaceplane from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in December 2023.

With each national security launch, we add to Americas capabilities and improve its deterrence in the face of growing threats, Horne stated.

USSF-62 was one of three missions granted to SpaceX in May 2022 as part of the NSSL Phase 2 Order Year 3 award, which collectively are valued at $309.7 million. SpaceX launched USSF-124 in February 2024 and will likely launch the SDA-Tranche 1 satellites later this year.

Ball Aerospace, the manufacturer of the WSF-M, said the spacecrafts primary payload is a passive microwave radiometer, which has been demonstrated on previous spacecraft. It also boasts a 1.8 meter antenna, which combined with the primary instrument allow the spacecraft to address so-called space-based environmental monitoring (SBEM) gaps.

Its capabilities will provide valuable information for protecting the assets of the United States and its allies, primarily in ocean settings.

The WSF-M satellite is a strategic solution tailored to address three high-priority Department of Defense SBEM gaps specifically, ocean surface vector winds, tropical cyclone intensity, and energetic charged particles in low Earth orbit, said David Betz, WSF-M program manager, SSC Space Sensing, in a statement. Beyond these primary capabilities, our instruments also provide vital data on sea ice characterization, soil moisture, and snow depth.

The spacecraft is based on the Ball Configurable Platform and includes a Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) sensor and an Energetic Charged Particle sensor. Ball Aerospace has been involved with other, similar spacecraft, including the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi-NPP) and the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1).

According to a public FY2024 Department of Defense budget document, the WSF-M system will consist of two spacecraft. Once the first is on orbit, it will assess the level of Ocean Surface Vector Wind (OSVW) measurement uncertainty and Tropical Cyclone Intensity (TCI) latency.

The first seeds of the program were planted back in October 2012 during whats called the Materiel Solution Analysis phase. That resulted in the Department of the Air Force issuing a request for proposals from companies in January 2017.

In November 2017, the Space and Missile Systems Center (now Space Systems Command) awarded a $93.7 million firm-fixed-price contract to Ball Aerospace for the WSF-M project with an expected completion date of Nov. 15, 2019.

This is an exciting win for us, and were looking forward to expanding our work with the Air Force and continuing to support warfighters and allies around the world, said Rob Strain, the then president, Ball Aerospace, in a 2017 statement. WSF-M extends Balls legacy of providing precise measurements from space to enable more accurate weather forecasting.

Roughly a year later, Ball received a $255.4 million contract modification, which provides for the exercise of an option for development and fabrication of the [WSF-M] Space Vehicle 1. This new contract also pushed out the expected completion date to Jan. 15, 2023.

In May 2020, the U.S. Space Forces SMSC noted the completion of the WSF-M systems critical design review that April, which opened the door to the beginning of fabrication.

Over the following year, the spacecraft went through a series of tests, running both the software and hardware through its paces. The primary bus structure was completed by August 2021 and by October 2022, the spacecraft entered its integration readiness review (IRR) and test readiness review (TRR).

Before that though, in May 2022, Ball was awarded a $16.6 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification, which was for the exercise of an option for integration, test and operational work of the spacecraft. That brought the cumulative face value of the contract to about $417.4 million.

Shortly before the end of that year, in November 2022, Ball received a $78.3 firm-fixed-price contract modification to develop the second WSF-M spacecraft. That work is expected to be completed by Nov. 15, 2027, which would set up a launch opportunity no earlier than January 2028.

It was finally delivered from Balls facilities in Boulder, Colorado, to Vandenberg Space Force Base for pre-launch processing in February 2024.

This delivery represents a major milestone for the WSF-M program and is a critical step towards putting the first WSF-M satellite on-orbit for the warfighter, said Col. Daniel Visosky, senior materiel leader, SSCs Space Sensing Environmental and Tactical Surveillance program office, in a statement.It represents a long-term collaboration and unity-of-effort between the Space Force and our combined teams at Ball Aerospace, support contractors and government personnel.

This first WSF-M satellite, and eventually the second, will take the place of the legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, which have roots going back in the 1960s. The program features two primary satellites, which operate in sun-synchronous LEO polar orbits at about 450 nautical miles in altitude.

Originally known as the Defense Satellite Applications Program (DASP), the first of these legacy satellites launched in 1962 and they were classified under the purview of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as part of the Corona Program. The DMSP was declassified in 1972 to allow data to be used by non-governmental scientists and civilians.

According to a Space Force historical accounting, a tri-agency organizational agreement was forged between the DoD, the Department of Commerce and NASA following President Bill Clintons directive for the DOC and the DoD to converge their separate polar-orbiting weather satellite programs. Funding responsibility stayed with the DoD, but by June 1998, the operational responsibility of the DMSP transferred to the Department of Commerce.

Satellite operations for the DMSP then became the responsibility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO).

The program was not without issue over the years. In 2004, the DMSP-F11 satellite, launched in 1991 and retired in 1995, disintegrated and created dozens of pieces of orbital debris. In 2015, a faulty battery was blamed for a similar disintegration of DMSP-F13, which resulted in 147 pieces of debris.

That year, Congress ordered an end to the DMSP program and the yet-to-launch F20 satellite was to be scrapped.

In February 2016, the DMSP-F19 had its planned five-year mission cut short less than two years after launch. The satellite suffered a power anomaly that caused engineers to lose control of it. The spacecraft was declared lost in March.

The DMSP-F17 satellite, launched in 2006, was then relocated to the primary position vacated by F19. According to the Observing Systems Capability Analysis and Review (OSCAR), a tool developed by the World Meteorological Organization, there are three DMSP satellites still in service: F16, F17 and F18. They launched in 2003, 2006 and 2009 respectively.

The latter two have expected end-of-life dates of 2025, with F16 intended to conclude its mission in December 2023, according to the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). However, that expiration has been extended as the WSF-M replacements are still on the way.

Its unclear if F17 and F18 can hang on until the second WSF-M spacecraft is completed and launched in 2028.

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SpaceX launches Space Force weather satellite designed to take over for a program with roots to the 1960s ... - Spaceflight Now

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket creates a vapor cone as it goes supersonic during the launch of the Transporter 2 payload from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida on June 30, 2021. SpaceX launched a military weather satellite into orbit on Thursday morning. File Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

April 11 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched its second national security mission of 2024 on Thursday with a Falcon 9 rocket lifting the U.S. Space Force mission USSF-62 into orbit.

The mission took off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base at 10:25 a.m. EDT. The mission sends a Weather System Follow-on Microwave satellite, or WSF-M, to low Earth orbit.

BAE Systems said it "will provide critical and actionable weather intelligence to military operations in all warfighting domains."

Air Force Col. Jim Horne, the senior material leader for Space Systems Command's Launch Execution Delta, said the satellite will prove important to military operations and "add to America's capabilities and improve its deterrence in the face of growing threats."

"The WSF-M satellite is a strategic solution tailored to address three high-priority Department of Defense SBEM gaps -- specifically, ocean surface vector winds, tropical cyclone intensity, and energetic charged particles in low Earth orbit," David Betz, WSF-M program manager, of the SSC Space Sensing, said in a statement.

"Beyond these primary capabilities, our instruments also provide vital data on sea ice characterization, soil moisture and snow depth."

SpaceX said it was the third launch of the first-stage booster supporting the mission. It was previously used on two Starlink missions. The first stage returned to Earth and landed on the Landing 4 zone at the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

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SpaceX launches military weather satellite into orbit - UPI News

SpaceX has received good news from Indias government with reports that its Starlink broadband service is to receive an expedited fast-track approval to operate in India ahead of Elon Musks visit to the country. Starlink was also authorised for use in Albania last week. However, there are doubts in some quarters over Starlinks profitability.

Bloomberg, in a report, talks about Starlink losing hundreds of dollars on each of the near-3 million costly antenna terminals it has supplied to users.

SpaceXs CFO Bret Johnsen, speaking at the Washington Satellite 2024 event in March, declined to elaborate on Elon Musks suggestions to investors that Starlink had achieved breakeven cashflow last year. Johnsen said he did not want to quantify numbers but that it was in positive cashflow and profitable territory for our satellite business now.

One the positive side of the ledger Bloomberg says that SpaceX itself, which holds the rocket and Starlink businesses, is likely see overall sales of around $15 billion this year from $4.7 billion a year ago. Bloomberg says that SpaceXs current investors expect the company to need to raise more cash or get a fresh infusion from Musk himself.

SpaceXs weekend launch was managed with the 20th use of a Falcon 9 booster stage, a worlds record for the company. The launch means that there has been a total of 6,212 Starlinks launched of which 5,809 are still in orbit and 5,744 are considered by astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.

The 20th launch means that SpaceX is halfway to matching the Space Shuttles record 39 orbital flights for its Discovery vehicle. The difference is that SpaceX used its Booster #1062 twenty times in just three-and-a-half years, while NASAs most successful Space Shuttle flew for 27 years (from 1984 to 2011).

Booster #1062 during its lifetime which no doubt will continue launched a batch of satellites for OneWeb, Nilesat 301 as well as Arabsats BADR-8. It has also helped put eight astronauts and more than 261 metric tons into orbit. It last launched on March 16th, and therefore a turnaround from landing to re-flight in just 27 days.

These launch records tend only to last for a few weeks until they are surpassed! SpaceX has handled 38 orbital missions this year.

Meanwhile, SpaceX last week asked the FCC for an experimental licence to cover the testing of 840 Direct-To-Cell satellites covering Australia (Optus), New Zealand (One New Zealand), Japan (KDDI), and Canada (Rogers). SpaceX explained that it intends to use a portion of its mobile partners authorised frequencies.

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SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers - Advanced Television

In a galaxy not so far away, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) strikes back. The independent federal agency, which safeguards the rights of employees and investigates violations of the National Labor Relations Act, is taking on a legion of billion-dollar corporations.

SpaceX, Starbucks, Amazon, and Trader Joes have all taken swipes at the NLRB as of late. SpaceX has led the charge with an I know you are but what am I approach to allegations of union-busting by claiming the agency is unconstitutional.

Jennifer Abruzzo, acting general counsel of the NLRB as appointed by President Joe Biden, isnt standing down to these corporate entities, and called out their legal tactics during a panel hosted by the Roosevelt Institute last week.

A growing number of deep-pocket, low-road employers are jumping on the bandwagon, seeking preliminary injunctions in courts, solely to slow [us] down or prevent us from engaging in our enforcement actions against them because they have the money to do so, she said.

These legal tactics are distractions to divert attention away from the fact that they are actually lawbreakers who need to be held accountable in a timely manner, she added.

Abruzzo described a back-and-forth thats not unlike a David and Goliath story, if Goliath was simply trying to run out the clock and leave David high and dry.

The NLRB isnt deterred, though, despite limited resources and a deluge of unfair labor practice filings amid heightened strike activity. There is no way were going to succumb, Abruzzo said, adding that the board will continue to call out companies where it sees fiteven among challenges to its very existence.

The main challenger of the NLRB, SpaceX, began its campaign against the federal branch earlier this year. Just one day after the NLRB issued a complaint against the astronautics company on Jan. 3, SpaceX sued the board in the Southern District of Texas, asserting that the institutions structure was unconstitutional. A judge subsequently opened the SpaceX hearing in March, with a case expected to be heard starting in May.

Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joes followed suit in the companys crusade against the almost 90-year-old institution, Abruzzo said Friday. These esoteric legal arguments came about, why? Because we dared to issue a complaint against SpaceX after it unlawfully fired eight workers for speaking up about their workplace concerns, she said.

SpaceXs pushback and suing of the organization seems much more an ideological debate than how most employers handle it, Matthew Bodie, a labor law professor at the University of Minnesota who was a previous field attorney at the NLRB, told Fortunes Jessica Mathews this past March. It just seems like more of a crusade, almost, than a rational economic response to litigation.

While SpaceX is leading the charge, other large employers have eagerly taken up the same argument. Trader Joes argued that the board, in its current form, shouldnt exist during a hearing in January over alleged unfair treatment of workers at its Hadley, Mass., storeits first in the nation to unionize.

The National Labor Relations Act as interpreted and/or applied in this matter, including but not limited to the structure and organization of the the National Labor Relations Act Board and the Agencys administrative law judges is unconstitutional, Trader Joes attorney, Christopher Murphy, said in January, according to a transcript first obtained by HuffPost.

Im certainly not going to be ruling on my own constitutionality anytime soon, quipped Administrative Law Judge Charles Muhl. Youll have to take that up with the Board and with the federal courts.

Trader Joesanother of the companies taking aim at the NLRBtold Fortune the company has not filed or joined any lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the NLRBs administrative law judge system or seeks to dismantle any aspect of the NLRB. It added that its statement during the January hearing was an affirmative defense, which was not an argument; it was an opportunity to preserve all of our legal rights under the law.

Amazon raised a similar argument in a case regarding the only Amazon warehouse to successfully unionize, in Staten Island, N.Y. Starbucks did the same in a post-hearing brief about some of its stores. Starbucks, however, has now distanced itself from Elon Musks raging brainchild. Starbucks has not joined a lawsuit against the NLRB questioning its constitutionality or initiated similar litigation against the NLRB, the company told Fortune, linking to a statement. As of March, the coffee conglomerate has 741 open or settled NLRB cases, according to the Economic Policy Institutealthough the coffee chain recently reversed itself and pledged to negotiate with its unionized workers.

Amazon did not respond to Fortunes request for comment.

Legalese aside, these major employers have been part of the ranks of companies answering charges of labor complaints by pointing the finger back at the NLRB. Whether or not they have called the NLRB unconstitutional or simply implied it, these employers are joining the Republican-backed charge against one of the only federal safeguards of workers rights.

But these corporate titans crusade isnt meeting meek soldiers. We are not going to stop despite these challenges, said Abruzzo, noting that the NLRB is the only federal agency guarding the rights of workers to unionize. During a time of workers discontent, billion-dollar companies are seemingly attempting to make one of the few checks to their power go broke.

It seems to me they would rather spend their money initiating court litigation rather than improving their workers lives and their own workplace operations, said Abruzzo. She added the main goal is to divert our scarce resources away from protecting workers rights to organize and to fight for recognition and respect for the value that they add to their employers operations. And that is not going to happen.

The NLRB isnt just twiddling its thumbs until it gets its day in court; rather, it appears to be fueled more than ever to tackle these companies and workplace violations.But Abruzzo conceded the companies efforts to draw attention to the NLRB are having an effect.

Frankly, that strategy is working, she said. Theres a lot of public reporting about the challenges as opposed to the law breaking.

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SpaceX leads the crusade against the NLRB as its head calls major employers 'lawbreakers' - Fortune

Did Elon Musk fib about the service breaking even? Balance Sheet

In a brief announcement on his social media platform last year, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk celebrated that the company's Starlink broadband service had "achieved breakeven cash flow."

"Starlink is also now a majority of all active satellites and will have launched a majority of all satellites cumulatively from Earth by next year," he said at the time.

But according to a damning new report by Bloomberg, Musk may have once again rigged the numbers in his favor by greatly underplaying the costs involved in launching the satellites, when in reality the company is losing "hundreds of dollars on each of the millions of ground terminals it ships."

According to Bloomberg's sources, SpaceX's accounting was "more of an art than a science" and the much-hyped system isn't actually profitable, despite Musk's assurances.

The company has kept its financials close to its chest, especially while fundraising. During a March press conference, SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen appeared cagey, telling reporters in a carefully worded comment that "I dont know that I want to quantify those numbers, but we are in positive cash flow and profitable territory for our satellite business now."

In short, is SpaceX's Starlink business cashflow positive, as Musk claims, or merely in "profitable territory"? The distinction could make all the difference for Musk's outsize plans for space colonization.

The mercurial CEO has long argued that the internet satellite broadband arm of his space company will provide the funding necessary to get humans to Mars. According to Bloomberg, Starlink represents more than half of SpaceX's revenue this year.

As of now, SpaceX has launched 5,600 satellites into low-Earth orbit and is planning to launch tens of thousands more.

Despite eclipsing the total number of all operating satellites in Earth's orbit, Starlink isn't just struggling to cut even. Experts are concerned that trying to provide the entire globe with internet via satellites instead of expanding coverage with cell towers where needed could prove difficult, with speeds already beginning to decrease in 2022.

In other words, SpaceX will have to pump out untold numbers of satellites to keep up with quickly growing bandwidth demands.

That's not all the bad news. According to Bloomberg, all major US airlines have rejected SpaceX's Starlink to provide internet service on flights, though an exact reason as to why remains unclear.

Nonetheless, SpaceX has exceeded expectations when it comes to generating revenue over the years. Sales could grow from $4.7 billion a year ago to $15 billion this year, per Bloomberg's sources.

SpaceX may end up spinning off its internet service with a potential IPO. But that's still years out, according to company officials.

More on Starlink: SpaceX Announces Plans to Set 100 Starlink Satellites on Fire

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There Appears to Be a Huge Problem With SpaceX's Starlink - Futurism

Image: SpaceX

Friday evening SpaceX launched a Starlink mission that while not newsworthy anymore, the booster it launched on was. B1062, first launched in 2020, has now reached the big 20 mission milestone.

While it took a bit longer than we expected after the destruction of B1058 on its return to port, SpaceX has hit that 20 mission milestone. Friday evening at 9:40 P.M. from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, SpaceX launched B1062 with 23 Starlink Gen 2 mini satellites on top.

B1062 first lifted off on November 5, 2020 with GPS III SV04 Sacagawea. Since then it has flown 13 Starlink missions (including the one from last night), eight astronauts, and various other commercial payloads, including Starlinks competitor OneWeb. Bring it to a grand total of 20 flights, once the believed limit of Falcon 9 boosters.

The booster performed like it came right out the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne. B1062, lofted its second stage and Starlink satellites on their intended trajectory before returning for a perfect landing on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

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When SpaceX first began reusing its first stage, many didnt think it was even possible. When it became possible, the hypothetical limits by Elon Musk was close to 10 or 15 launches. That was also at the time believed to be a big ask.

SpaceX is no longer advertising potential limits to how many times they can refly a booster before seeing any failures. There will be limits, and SpaceX intends to find them but dont have an idea as to when theyll show up.

Each booster goes through a rigorous refurbishment process before reflight. However, those process have come down in time it takes to finish, some boosters reflying in a matter of weeks. Its possible teams have already spotted failing points before flight and those booster see longer refurbishments but thats something well probably never hear about.

The knowledge gained with reusing Falcon is important for the companys new rocket, Starship. SpaceX hopes to launch Starship rockets on a near hourly bases, meaning those boosters and ships will quickly replace Falcon boosters in reflight records.

Starship may just be a few more flights away before beginning sending payloads to orbit. This will most likely begin with full size Starlink Gen 2 satellites, likely replacing the mini variations launch on Falcon 9s.

While it might be hard to believe, we could be reaching the conclusion of the Falcon 9s career (were talking years here not months), at least its commercial career. While its unknown how many customers will move from Falcons to Starship, the potential low cost for launch could mean the bulk switch over.

So does that mean well never know the limit of Falcon 9 boosters? Unsure, B1062 will probably fly a few more times this year, maybe its 21, or 25, or 50. Whatever it is, Starship will most likely be higher.

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SpaceX launches the first Falcon booster 20 times - Space Explored

SpaceX successfully launches another batch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit.

9:45 p.m. Update:

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station around 9:40 p.m.

After liftoff and separation Falcon 9 lands on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship completing the first 20th launch and landing of a booster!

This boosters previous missions include GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, OneWeb Launch 17, ARABSAT BADR-8, and now 13

Original Story:

Liftoff is scheduled for Friday night at 9:22 p.m.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites will blast off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

This is the 20th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, OneWeb Launch 17, ARABSAT BADR-8, and 12 Starlink missions.

Read: Only on 9: Channel 9 speaks with Madeline Sotos father

After stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Backup opportunities available until 12:48 a.m. ET on Saturday, April 13

Stay with Channel 9 for live coverage of the launch, and click here to watch live.

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SpaceX successfully launches a batch of Starlink satellites Friday night - Yahoo! Voices

A space startup called Max Space is looking to launch expandable, "stadium-sized" habitats into the Earth's orbit on board a SpaceX rocket by the end of the decade.

In theory, the startup's goal is straightforward. Its habitats are designed to give us as much room to live in space by minimizing the mass and volume of the payload required to be launched into space, a notoriously costly process.

"The problem with space today is, there isn't enough habitable space in space," said co-founder Aaron Kemmer in a statement. "Unless we make usable space in space a lot less expensive, and much larger, humanity's future in space will remain limited."

The one-year-old company's "scalable habitat" designs range from 20 cubic meters to a whopping 1,000, or 700 and 35,300 cubic feet respectively which would dwarf existing habitat concepts out there if they're launched in 2027 and 2030 as planned.

These habitats could not only float in the microgravity of orbit, the company says, but even be deployed on the surface of the Moon or even Mars.

"My dream is to have a city on the Moon before I die," Kemmer said. "So I look at this like, this is going to be the habitat, the structures, that are going to go inside the lava tubes buried under the [lunar] surface," Kemmer told Space.com.

That's all with a huge disclaimer, of course: it's a wildly ambitious plan and the company is bound to encounter plenty of obstacles along the way.

At least the startup's leadership has some existing experience to draw from. Kemmer co-founded Redwire Space (formerly Made in Space), a company that has sent several 3D-printing devices to the International Space Station to explore off-Earth manufacturing.

Making habitats inflatable has some key advantages, including a much smaller size that could squeeze into a rocket fairing.

The idea isn't exactly new. As Space.com points out, there are three inflatable space habitat modules orbiting the Earth right now, all of which were developed and built by Bigelow Aerospace, which has been pioneering the concept.

Max Space cofounder Maxim de Jong worked on the pressure-restraining hulls of two of these habitats at Canadian contractor Thin Red Line Aerospace.

The startup is hoping to bring costs down by using a new approach that's highly scalable, and launch its first off-Earth test a module roughly the size of two suitcases that expands into a volume of 700 cubic feet just two years from now, per Space.com.

If everything goes according to plan, the prototype could set a new record, ballooning past the volumes of all three inflatable habitats currently orbiting the Earth.

But Max Space isn't the only company looking to launch a new generation of expanding habitats into space.

Competitor Sierra Space has also been busy intentionally blowing up full-scale inflatable habitat prototypes on Earth, and is planning to start work on flight-ready hardware by mid-2026.

More on inflatable habitats: Full-Scale Prototype Space Habitat Explodes Under Pressure

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Startup Looking to Launch Stadium-Sized Space Habitats on SpaceX - Futurism

Representative Starlink launch on a Falcon 9 Photo: Charles Boyer / ToT

I recently said that covering Starlink launches is almost like covering Southwest Airlines daily flights from Orlando International Airport to Austin, Texas. Its not that watching a rocket launch is boring, it never is, it is simply that SpaceX is flying missions to add to its Starlink constellation so regularly that it has become a reliable and routine service thats much like, well, airline flights departing from the airport.

Tonight is such a launch, but this one comes with a big twist: it is the 20th flight of one of the companys fleet of Falcon 9 boosters, and that is a first not only for SpaceX but also for spaceflight globally.

That this historic occasion is happening with little fanfare is a testament to the technical comptence of SpaceX generally, and the Falcon 9 teams that refurbish and launch them from the Cape specifically.

And while the booster and fairings are regularly reused, it must also be pointed out that their second stages are not, and that means that SpaceXs factory in Hawthorne, California is creating not only the second stages at a torrid pace, they are also building Merlin Vacuum engines to power them as well. It is a job extremely well done by everyone, and it should be acknowledged as such by the spaceflight community generally.

23 Starlink satellites, to be used in SpaceXs orbital-based Internet service.

The 45th Weather Squadron is forecasting all but perfect weather for a launch attempt tonight, with even better conditions tomorrow. Liftoff winds have less than a 5% chance of creating a Range Violation Friday, meaning a better than 95% chance of acceptable conditions. On Saturday, even that slight concern has been removed from the 45ths forecast.

Falcon 9 will take a southeasterly direction tonight, as is customary for Group 6 Starlink missions.

Given that the flight is immediately offshore with no return to launch site, there will be no sonic boom from the launch this evening on the Space Coast.

Tonight is slated to be the 20th flight of Booster B1062, a first for SpaceX and for spaceflight anywhere. We cover the record of this historic booster here: SpaceX Booster To Launch For 20th Time Friday Night.

That next flight is of interest because last May, Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceXs vice president of build and flight reliability, said in May [2023] that engineers were in the process of certifying Falcon 9 boosters for up to 20 flights for Starlink missions, according to a report by Stephen Clark at Ars Technica.

Later in 2023, Nate Janzen, manager of launch pad systems and operations for SpaceX at Vandenberg told Santa Barbara, Californias Noozhaek that Next year, SpaceX will re-evaluate and conduct analysis with an eye toward certifying the first-stage boosters for 25 to 30 flights. Whether or not that certification has been achieved as of yet will be an interesting bit of news to follow.

Per SpaceX, Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

After touching down on A Shortfall of Gravitas, the booster will be returned to Port Canveral after a few days, where it will be offloaded and transported to SpaceXs Hangar X facility at Kennedy Space Center, where it will be inspected, refurbished and possibly prepared for another next flight.

1: this includes Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Starship Heavy Launches 2: Amos-6 is discounted due to a pad failure, not an in-flight anomoly

SpaceCoastLaunchCalendar.comwill have a livestream of the launch if youre not able to watch the launch in person:Livestream

SpaceX will have a livestream of the launch on their website: Starlink 6-49. This will also be available on the X platform.

Spaceflight Now will have coverage of the launch starting about one hour before liftoff on Youtube: link

This evenings planned launch is from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, which means that the best direct views of liftoff are: Banana River Bridge on FL-528 Wnear Port Canaveral, or the southern parks on US-1 / S. Washington Avenuein Titusville. Kennedy Point Park and,Rotary Riverview Park (among others) are your best bets.

Cocoa Beach, Cocoa Beach Pier, Jetty Park Pier will have indirect views, meaning that liftoff will not be visible, but after the rocket clears the pad and any ground obstructions, you will be able to see Falcon 9 ascending clearly assuming there are no clouds between you and the rocket.

Being that the launch is in the evening, if you plan to attend in person, dont forget mosquito spray. Be prepared for potential pushes in the launch schedule, and keep up by monitoring the live stream links mentioned above.

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SpaceX Planning Starlink 6-49 Launch Tonight, Which Will Make A Bit of History - Talk of Titusville