Highlights of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Starlink 6-22 mission
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 22 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida before the first stage booster landing.
SpaceX
Back in 2021, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center hosted 31 orbital rocket launches, a new annual record.
That number leaped to 57 launches last year — a new record representing a robust 84% increase.
SpaceX is targeting the Space Coast’s record-shattering 58th launch thus far this year for 10:17 p.m. EDT Saturday. If needed, five backup launch opportunities are available from 11:07 p.m. to 2:15 a.m. EDT Sunday.
If the Falcon 9 Starlink mission goes as planned, the Cape’s annual launch record will fall on Oct. 21 or 22 with more than two full months remaining in 2023.
“I’ve seen the massive growth and change. We used to be happy with eight or so shuttle launches a year,” said Don Platt, director of the Florida Institute of Technology’s Spaceport Graduate Center in Titusville.
“And then that would be modulated by what we called unmanned launches, which were mainly ULA launches. And that would get us up to 20 or so, most years,” said Platt, who has worked at the Spaceport site since 1998.
“So this is a very different beast now,” he said.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station should see mostly clear skies Saturday night with a low around 64 and a north wind
