By the dawn of Saturday, the two spaceports situated in central Florida anticipate having executed five launches in a single week, featuring a doubleheader on Wednesday, undertaken by three separate entities.
These takeoffs from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station or Kennedy Space Center would surpass the high mark of 93 in a year from Florida’s Space Coast. So far, 91 liftoffs have been achieved.
The week commenced early Sunday with SpaceX’s deployment of 18 shared-ride satellites. This Wednesday, Space X and United Launch Alliance are prepared for missions designed to set satellites aloft. Subsequently, Friday afternoon, Blue Origin intends to propel the New Glenn rocket with a duo of satellites toward Martian orbit. Furthermore, early Saturday, the scheduled deployment includes more SpaceX Starlink satellites.
Initially, SpaceX, under the ownership of billionaire Elon Musk, is aiming to send 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, potentially as soon as 6:08 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 40. This occasion marks the fifth voyage for the initial-stage booster, encompassing a Crew-11 mission and a Starlink Mission.
A live streaming broadcast of this mission is set to commence approximately five minutes prior to the launch.
At 10:24 p.m., United Launch Alliance is poised to initiate the launch of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Complex 41 for the second satellite in Viasat’s satellite constellation. The rocket, with a mass of 6 tons and equipped with five boosters, will dispatch the payload into an elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Blue Alliance represents a cooperative enterprise between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. A live feed of the company’s ascent will be accessible on YouTube.
Should both deployments proceed successfully, the annual milestone of 93 from Florida will be equaled.
Blue Origin, established by Amazon magnate Jeff Bezos, has plans to launch its second Glenn rocket, with a launch window opening at 2:51 p.m. Friday from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This undertaking is in partnership with NASA, following their initial venture on Jan. 16.
The pair of satellites, known as Blue and Gold, are destined to travel for around 11 months to Mars, where they will then conduct approximately 11 months of scientific exploration and orbit the Red Planet. The New Glenn rocket is also slated for a landing attempt on its floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean, an endeavor that has experienced three postponements since October 2024.
The following SpaceX operation is programmed for Saturday, with the earliest commencement at 3:30 a.m., involving 29 Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.
On 1:09 a.m. Sunday, SpaceX propelled a Falcon 9 for a shared-payload mission carrying a solitary satellite for South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development, accompanied by 17 other enterprises, into low-Earth orbit. The launch originated from Launch site: Launch Complex 36, Launch Complex 40. Additional participants included Exolaunch, Fergani, Tomorrow Companies, Starcloud, and Vast.
The booster subsequently made contact with Landing Zone 2.
Over in California, SpaceX also has on its schedule a launch of 28 satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s 4E at 12:56 p.m. PST this Wednesday.
Sourse: www.upi.com
