SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellitesSpaceX tonight successfully launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The first stage completed its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
76 SpaceX
32 China
9 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 90 to 48, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 76 to 62.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The first stage completed its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
76 SpaceX
32 China
9 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 90 to 48, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 76 to 62.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Jan……10
Feb…….9
Mar…..13 (1 was IFT-3 of Starship/Super Heavy)
Apr…..12
May….13
June…12 (1 was IFT-4 of Starship/Super Heavy, 1 was Falcon Heavy)
July……5 (FAA stand down of two weeks)
Aug……2
Terry–
thanks for that.
And now another win in the launch column for SpaceX, with the NG-21 CRS mission now on its way to ISS today, beating a pretty dodgy weather situation at the Cape this morning… And a successful return to the launch site for the first stage, of course.
Next up: Starlink Group 8-3 on Wednesday, from SLC-40 at CCSFS.
To keep this pace up, they need more RTLS Missions. The time it takes to tow an ASDS out, then back is limiting launch rate. They have in port time down to a minimum now, but the tow time is hard to beat.
geoffc,
SpaceX seems to keep finding ways to shave time off of ASDS turnarounds. ASOG is partially self-propelled and turns around more quickly than JRTI. I think SpaceX might also be using more muscular tugs than previously (“You’re going to need a bigger boat!”).
In any event, August is shaping up to be a good month for RTLS missions. Four, and perhaps five, of the 14 missions scheduled for August are RTLS landings. The NG-21 mission, which just flew this morning, is the first of these. The Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission, due to launch from Vandy on the 11th might be the next. Other RTLS missions in the pipe for August are WorldView Legion 3 & 4 from SLC-40 on the 14th, Transporter 11 from Vandy on the 15th and Crew-9 from LC-39A on the 18th.
There is at least one RTLS mission scheduled for September. There is also a double Galileo deployment for the Europeans, which, if it follows the pattern of the previous such mission, will be an expended booster mission flown on one of the highest-mileage units in the stable. Not a landing, but at least there will be no ASDS turnaround involved either.