SpaceX notches a centesimal launch of 2024 with Starlink mission on Falcon 9 rocket – Spaceflight Now

Replace 2:31 a.m. EDT: SpaceX launched the Starlink 10-10 mission at 2:10 a.m. EDT (0610 UTC).

SpaceX broke its personal file for variety of orbital launches carried out by one firm, which it set at 96 in 2023. The Starlink 10-10 mission put SpaceX at 97 orbital flights with two-and-a-half months nonetheless remaining within the 12 months.

The Falcon 9 launch additionally marked SpaceX’s a centesimal complete launch of 2024, together with three suborbital launches of its Starship rocket from southern Texas. Liftoff occurred at 2:10 a.m. EDT (0610 UTC) from Area Launch Complicated 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail quantity B1080 within the SpaceX fleet, launched for an eleventh time. It beforehand flew two personal astronaut missions to the Worldwide Area Station (Axiom-2 and Axiom-3), two Cargo Dragon missions to the ISS (NG-21 and CRS-30) and the Euclid area telescope for the European Area Company (ESA).

A little bit greater than eight minutes after liftoff, B1080 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This marked the 81st booster touchdown for ASOG and the 353rd booster touchdown so far.

Onboard the mission are 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. This was the primary launch of Starlink satellites because the higher stage anomaly occurred in the course of the Crew-9 mission on Sept. 28. The final batch of Starlink satellites launched in the course of the Starlink 9-8 mission on Sept. 25.

Through the Crew-9 mission, after the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft separated from the higher stage, the Merlin Vacuum Engine fired for a further 500 milliseconds in the course of the deorbit burn, which induced the stage to maneuver exterior of its deliberate touchdown zone to fritter away over the Pacific Ocean.

The difficulty was investigated by SpaceX in a mishap investigation overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration and checked by NASA in an impartial overview. Because the mishap, SpaceX efficiently launched each a Falcon 9 rocket on the Hera asteroid mission for ESA and a Falcon Heavy rocket on the Europa Clipper mission for NASA.