SpaceX accomplished double-header launch night time as the tip of the yr approaches. A Falcon 9 rocket launched the Starlink 6-36 mission from Cape Canaveral House Pressure Station at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC) on Thursday.
This mission comes on the heels of the Falcon Heavy launch, sending the X-37B navy spaceplane to orbit.
The 2 missions launched 2 hours 48 minutes and 40 seconds aside, marking the quickest turnaround between orbital launches from Florida because the launches of the Agena Goal Car and Gemini 8 on March 16, 1966, which had been 1 hour 40 minutes and 59 seconds aside.
The booster supporting this mission is tail quantity B1069, which made its twelfth flight. This was the ninth time the booster lifted off from House Launch Advanced-40 (SLC-40). It’s different three launches had been from historic Launch Advanced 39A at NASA’s Kennedy House Heart.
It first launched SpaceX’s twenty fourth Industrial Resupply Companies (CRS-24) mission and would go on to launch seven Starlink missions as nicely.
About 8.5 minutes after liftoff B1069 landed again on the droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ which was stationed close to the Bahamas within the Atlantic Ocean.
The mission was the primary flight of a Falcon 9 rocket because the return of the destroyed first stage booster, tail quantity B1058, earlier this week. Following the primary flight of B1069 two years in the past, SpaceX’s Kiko Dontchev mentioned they began introducing self-leveling touchdown legs to assist defend booster on their return to port.
Tremendous disappointing and unhappy to lose booster 1058.
Tippy boosters happen while you get a sure set of touchdown situations that result in the legs having uneven loading. Heavy wind or sea state then trigger the booster to teeter and slide which may result in even worse leg loading. In…
— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) December 26, 2023
