Two launches by SpaceX
In the past two days SpaceX completed two more launches. The first, yesterday morning, placed 25 more Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The first stage completed its 8th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
Then tonight SpaceX launched a GPS satellite for the Space Force, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The first stage completed its 7th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. That drone ship, “Just read the instructions,” is now being shifted to support Starship operations, and will no longer be used for Falcon 9, after supporting 155 first stage landings. What it will do in connection with Starship has not been made clear. The two fairing halves completed their 2nd and 3rd flights respectively.
The Space Force had originally intended to launch this satellite on a ULA Vulcan rocket, but a month ago it shifted the contract to SpaceX because of the nozzle problem that has plagued two different ULA Vulcan launches. Because of this shift, the time from contract award to launch was the quickest by SpaceX for the Space Force.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
48 SpaceX
21 China
6 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, 48 to 37.
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
In the past two days SpaceX completed two more launches. The first, yesterday morning, placed 25 more Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The first stage completed its 8th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
Then tonight SpaceX launched a GPS satellite for the Space Force, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The first stage completed its 7th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. That drone ship, “Just read the instructions,” is now being shifted to support Starship operations, and will no longer be used for Falcon 9, after supporting 155 first stage landings. What it will do in connection with Starship has not been made clear. The two fairing halves completed their 2nd and 3rd flights respectively.
The Space Force had originally intended to launch this satellite on a ULA Vulcan rocket, but a month ago it shifted the contract to SpaceX because of the nozzle problem that has plagued two different ULA Vulcan launches. Because of this shift, the time from contract award to launch was the quickest by SpaceX for the Space Force.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
48 SpaceX
21 China
6 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, 48 to 37.
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
Is Falcon TOO good?
I think even Edward might have my back on this one. New Glenn is an engineering wonder…it really is.
It and Starship may falter just by Falcon simply showing up.
But Falcon has just sucked all the LOX out of the room–so to speak.
Falcon is now the Cal Ripkin Jr.
But we need the Sammy Sosa/Mark McGuire race too, as humans–I don’t care that they juiced up.
I will never hate anything as much as I hated Delta II.
It was an Air Force Thor…an unpardonable sin from the start. A glorified sounding rocket that put rinky-dink bomb-disposal bots all over Mars.
But Falcon is in danger of becoming a twinjet, as it were.
My family lived only a stone’s throw from the Birmingham Airport here in Alabama–moving away in 1977. I loved hearing the howl of the Phantom jets. A cheap vacation being hopping in the car and parking on a low rise and seeing all the different planes of every size and shape.
And twinjets just ruined everything.
People just don’t go to airports anymore.
I think that is dangerous. We need to get kids’ faces out of Candy Crush and looking skyward.
Yes, Falcon saves us money, after a fashion. But is it costing us something as well?
Robert, where did you see the use of JRTI for Starship ops? I would like to read more.
Four years after the Ukraine War broke out, SpaceX is still carrying the Western World for access to orbit!
Ariane 6 is finally starting to hit a stride, but it’s a slow, loping stride.
I loved Ariane 4
That was perhaps the loveliest launch vehicle ever.
I hear Reeses is going to have better ingredients again.
Nothing is as good as it used to be. Food doesn’t taste the same.
Worse, I see other nations having better consumer products now.
Mexico has these simple “Chaka Chaka” machines…there are these Costway 26 things. Just knobs–no computer garbage.
When STAR TREK: BEYOND hit theaters, they had the drink toppers that looked like FASA Starship miniatures—in… Hungary…. Hungary!
Not at my theater…they had….NASCAR.
I was watching a YouTube about German houses…how well built they are.
This is more than just about money. There was a large, expensive home still under construction that fell to pieces during a storm. This thing would have cost millions, being on the East Coast.
But it was shoddy…thrown together.
This is America–we’re supposed to have the best….
@Robert – found a tweet…
“After 156 successful Falcon 9 landings, Just Read the Instructions will be fully dedicated to support Starship operations going forward”
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2046484941739790412
The GPS launch commentary mentioned that JRTI would see its last Falcon landing, but I don’t think Starship support was explicitly specified as its future. It’s hard to imagine to what other use it would be put. Vandenberg won’t need another drone ship for some time.
Geoffrey M Carmen: This what SpaceX’s announcer said during the second launch. Only information I have.
Peter Monta: It was explicitly stated, though no specifics about what the drone ship would do were provided.
“Star Trek: Beyond” was an abomination, just an awful film.
Then again “Star Trek” (2009) was just a contrived mess that experienced box office success not for its story, acting, or even special effects, but for the fact that it had a new cast and completely different sets.
Star Trek: Into Darkness was just as bad, and the choice of Cumberbatch to play “Khan” was idiotic.
Three films that may have made some money at the box office, but serve as proof that JJ Abrams should not be allowed to make films for established movie franchises.
PS: His (“The Force Awakens” woke me up to the fact that “Star Wars” no longer deserved my time. I haven’t watched any of it since.)
I would say a landing pad to test HLS, but the “ring” thrusters designed for lunar g would be way underpowered for 1g tests. Unless the test vehicle is stripped to 1/6 its lunar landing mass…
Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, tweeted out a little more detail about this news of Just Read The Instructions’ role change (I have inserted in brackets the full names of the acronyms Kiko employs here):
With LC-39A becoming a primarily Falcon Heavy and Starship pad, we don’t actually need two operational droneships on the east coast to maintain our Falcon manifest. Think of pads/drone ships like airplane runways where you need a landing runway for each takeoff runway (ideally they are the same runway I.e. starship). ASOG [A Shortfall Of Gravitas] can support 4 day launch cycle time with RTLS [Return To Launch Site] missions in parallel. This is exactly how we operate on the west coast!
JRTI will join the “you’ll thank me later” ship to support Starship and SuperHeavy transport from Starbase to the Cape. We have a plan for any double down range Falcon Heavy missions 🚀🚀🚀
https://x.com/i/status/2046632892923572420
Richard M,
That Kiko Dontchev guy fan dances about as well as Sally Rand ever did.
The new job for Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) transporting Starship stages from Starbase to KSC-Canaveral makes good sense. JRTI is the only drone ship remaining with the original rectangular deck. That should allow straightforward installation of cradle fixtures.
I wonder if perhaps JRTI will be refitted to carry a pair of Starships at a time while the new barge, You’ll Thank Me Later (YTML), is fitted out to carry a pair of Super Heavies. Doing so would nicely balance the loads.
On the matter of that secret plan for flying Falcon Heavy missions needing downrange booster recoveries, I figure the plan is for A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) to catch one of them while the other lands on a land-based pad somewhere in the Caribbean. My best guess would be somewhere in the Bahamas.
Possibly relevant: An X post by SpaceX VP Jon Edwards from last May which just might be what Kiko is hinting at:
https://x.com/i/status/1918327701624230323
Richard M,
Ballsy. Probably too much so.
Jeff Wright
Don”t compare European Homes to American Homes.
First off you build with what you have available. Europe has not had adequate amounts of trees for housing for the last 400 years. Heck the European nations didn’t even have enough for sailing ships.
So they built housing with stone and brick.
You see that all over the New England states. For our first 200 years we had a lot of European brick makers and brick layers.
The Americas have always built with wood. We had it in huge numbers and it was cheap after the modern lumber mill was built.
No house is safe from storms. American storms are not like those gentile European rains.
And no house is strong until its all finished. The roof protects it, the weathered in sides strengthen it. Even the dry wall inside strengthens it. Until then its just a pile of sticks.
In America even brick homes are vulnerable to destruction. Especially for the first 45 days (mortar takes that long to reach full strength) and before the roof is fully on.
Heck America has volcanoes and massive earth quakes. Bricks and stone don’t last in earthquakes like wood does.
When was the last time an American sized hurricane or tornado hit Europe?
Most of Europe does not get snow like America does. What parts of Europe get 6 feet of snow a year?
I get tired of people saying American homes don’t last. No home lasts if you do not take care of it.
When I was 12 I helped rebuild a 150 year old log cabin. The family who owned it still lived in it till 1976. Its a state owned museum now.
My home was built in 1952. Its still like new. I do my maintenance. My parents home built in 1974 is still as good as new.
Sorry everyone about my rant.