SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites 12 hours after Crew-10 sent to ISS
March 15 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched another batch of Starlik satellites into orbit Saturday morning, a little more than 12 hours after the private company teamed up with NASA to send four astronauts to the International Space Station -- also from Florida.
In addition, SpaceX sent 74 satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on a rideshare mission called Transporter 13 late Friday from California.
All three involved a Falcon 9 rocket.
The SpaceX flight with 23 satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, lifted off at 7:35 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station pad 40. Eight minutes later the Falcon 9's upper stage landed aboard drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean, completing its 18th mission.
This was the 23rd SpaceX from Florida this year.
This launch came two days, eight hours, 59 minutes and 40 seconds after the liftoff of the Starlink 12-21 mission, beating SpaceX's previous turnaround time at that pad by nearly six hours.
Earlier Saturday from California, SpaceX launched satellites developed by Cape Canaveral-based Sidus Space at 11:43 p.m. PDT.
"There were 74 payloads on this flight, including cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads, a re-entry capsule, and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying 11 of those payloads to be deployed at a later time," SpaceX reported.
The first Transporter mission launched in January 2021, sent 143 payloads to orbit, a record that still stands.
The rocket's first stage came back to Earth 7.5 minutes later, making a vertical, powered touchdown back at Vandenberg. It was the 13th landing for this booster and the 400th for a Falcon 9 first stage overall, according to SpaceX.
On Saturday light, Crew-10 will dock with the ISS. The Dragon capsule is scheduled to reach the space station about 11:30 p.m. EDT.
The crew members are Commander Anne McClain and pilot Nichole Ayers with NASA, and mission specialists Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Kirill Peskov, a Roscosmos cosmonaut with Russia.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A at 7:03 p.m. under a clear sky and a setting sun. The flight got the go ahead after they resolved an air pocket issue in the hydraulics system for the clamp arm supporting the Falcon 9 rocket. The flight had been scheduled for Wednesday and didn't go off on Thursday because of unfavorable weather conditions along the path.
Minutes after launch, Falcon 9's first stage landed on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Then, Dragon went into low Earth orbit.
When the spacecraft docks, there will be 11 crew members.
Aboard the Crew-9 capsule, Williams and Wilmore will ride back to Earth "no earlier than Wednesday March 19," according to NASA. They will be joined by NASA's Nick Hague and Roscosmos' Aleksandr Gorbunov, who arrived at the ISS on Sept. 29, 2024.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore went to the Space Station on the troubled Boeing Starliner June 5, 2024, for what was planned as a week-long test flight. Due to Starliner issues it became a nine-month mission.
The next SpaceX launch is scheduled for Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station pad 40. The launch window for another batch of Starlink satellites opens at 2:09 p.m.
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