Latest news with #orbitalrockets
Yahoo
04-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Is there a launch today? Upcoming NASA, SpaceX, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral
During the first seven months of the year, 64 orbital rockets took flight from Florida's Space Coast. This unpreceded pace will zoom beyond 2024's freshly established annual record of 93 launches — should the cadence continue through year's end. Will a new launch record materialize at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's neighboring Kennedy Space Center? Stay tuned. The Cape's August launch schedule kicks off with NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 mission, with space fans anticipating target dates for United Launch Alliance's USSF-106 national security mission and Blue Origin's next New Glenn rocket liftoff. Following are the latest missions coming up from the Cape. All launches are listed in Eastern Standard Time. But be aware: Dates and times routinely change for a wide variety of reasons. For the latest mission updates and space news, visit For questions or comments, email FLORIDA TODAY Space Reporter Rick Neale at Rneale@ Cape Canaveral: Rocket launches in Florida: Here's an updating list of all 2025 missions from Cape Canaveral Thursday, August 7: Amazon Kuiper KF-02 Mission: SpaceX will launch the next batch of satellites for Amazon's Project Kupier satellite internet constellation. This is the second launch of the satellies on a SpaceX rocket. Launch: 10:01 a.m. to 10:28 a.m. Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Sonic booms: No. Live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team coverage: Starts 90 minutes before liftoff at Sunday, August 10: SpaceX Starlink 10-20 Mission: A SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch the next batch of Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. Launch window: 8:16 a.m. to 12:16 p.m. Trajectory: Northeast. Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Live coverage: Starts 90 minutes before liftoff at Wednesday, August 13: SpaceX Starlink 10-11 Mission: A SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch the next batch of Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. Launch window: 8:41 a.m. to 12:41 p.m. Trajectory: Northeast. Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Live coverage: Starts 90 minutes before liftoff at Thursday, Aug. 21: USSF-36 (OTV-8) Mission: A SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch the eight flight of the Space Force's Boeing-built X-37B space plane. Launch window: TBA. Trajectory: TBA. Location: NASA's Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. Live coverage: Starts 90 minutes before liftoff at Thursday, Aug. 21: NASA-SpaceX CRS-33 Mission: NASA and SpaceX will team up to launch a Dragon spacecraft packed with science investigations, supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. Launch: TBA. Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Sonic booms: TBA. Live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team coverage: Starts two hours before liftoff at TBA: United Launch Alliance USSF-106 Mission: Equipped with four solid rocket boosters, ULA's third Vulcan rocket will launch two U.S. national security satellites into geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles above Earth. Launch: TBA. Location: Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Sonic booms: No. Live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team coverage: Starts two hours before liftoff at TBA: NASA's Blue Origin ESCAPADE Mission: Blue Origin will launch its second powerhouse New Glenn rocket on the NG-2 mission, sending NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft en route to study the Martian magnetosphere. Launch window: TBA. Location: Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Sonic booms: No. Live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team coverage: Starts two hours before liftoff at TBA: ULA Sierra Space Dream Chaser Mission: Sierra Space will launch its uncrewed Dream Chaser space plane atop a ULA Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch window: TBA. Location: Launch Complex 41. Live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team coverage: Starts two hours minutes before liftoff at For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Rocket launch schedule: August missions from Cape Canaveral, Florida Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Will Florida's Space Coast surpass 100 annual rocket launches for 1st time this year?
Will the annual number of orbital rockets launched from Florida's Space Coast reach triple digits for the first time by year's end? Stay tuned. During 2024, a record-shattering 93 launches took flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's neighboring Kennedy Space Center, easily zooming past the previous record of 72 launches in 2023. But in an unprecedented cadence, 61 launches have already racked up thus far during 2025. That's a full month and a half — or 47 days — ahead of last year's record pace. "The increase that you're seeing, especially in our eastern and western ranges, reflects the deployment of these mega-constellations for broadband, direct-to-device and other things," said Karen Jones, a space economist and technology strategist with the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corp. "It's healthy. It's showing that market's growing," Jones said. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral SpaceX Starlink high-speed-internet missions continue to dominate the Space Coast's launch schedule. As of Wednesday, July 16, Starlink boasted more than six million customers and 7,945 functioning satellites in low-Earth orbit, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. That sum does not include the latest batch of 26 Starlink satellites launched Wednesday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. In the Cape's 61st liftoff of the year thus far, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 24 Amazon Project Kuiper internet-beaming satellites into low-Earth orbit on the KF-01 mission Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Project Kuiper is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' competitor to Elon Musk's Starlink. By comparison, Florida's 61st launch of 2024 did not occur until Labor Day weekend, on Aug. 28. That's when SpaceX's Starlink 8-10 mission lifted off from the Space Force installation, deploying 21 Starlink satellites. The rise of orbiting mega-constellations Worldwide, nearly 11,900 operational satellites were orbiting Earth by the end of 2024 — a sum that skyrocketed 454% since 2018. The global annual launch rate increased by 129% during that same span, The Aerospace Corp. reported in a paper co-authored by Jones that was published two weeks ago. Aside from Starlink, count Amazon's Project Kuiper and AST SpaceMobile among the commercial companies also vying to ramp up future communications-satellite launches from Florida. Also following suit: China. "Not surprisingly, the world's second-largest economy is not remaining earthbound. While China has one commercial spaceport, the country plans to launch more than 36,000 satellites in the near future," The Aerospace Corp. paper said. "The constellation GuoWang ('SatNet') is expected to have about 13,000 satellites and compete with Starlink services. Another project to rival Starlink is Qianfan ('Thousand Sails')," the paper said. Though demand for individual launches continues to surge, Jones said this trend may back off in coming years as companies consolidate and far-larger rockets boasting jumbo-sized fairings like SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn let companies "maximize their productivity and minimize resource consumption." What's more, Jones' paper noted the commercialization of low-Earth orbit is showing signs of maturity "as early entrants capture market share and later entrants strive to differentiate themselves." BryceTech, an Alexandria, Virginia, analytics firm, forecasts that an average of 3,100 spacecraft per year will be deployed through 2028, decreasing to 2,500 spacecraft from 2029 to 2033. Meanwhile, SpaceX seeks environmental approvals to start launching Starship-Super Heavy rocket systems from KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin is expected to launch its second powerhouse New Glenn rocket as early as mid-August from the Space Force installation. NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 highlights launch schedule Looking ahead on the Eastern Range calendar, two missions are coming up from Cape Canaveral. Note that SpaceX is likely to launch more Starlink missions during this timeframe: A Falcon 9 should deploy the Boeing-built ninth and 10th O3B mPOWER satellites into medium-Earth orbit Monday, July 21, owner/operator SES reported. The launch window extends from 5 p.m. to 8:13 p.m. NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 is scheduled for launch at 12:09 p.m. July 31, sending NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov up for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station. For at least the second straight year, high-profile officials kicked off January with public launch-total predictions that proved far too optimistic. The Space Force initially projected up to 156 launches would take flight this year from Florida's Space Coast. For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Will Cape Canaveral see unprecedented 100 rocket launches during 2025? Solve the daily Crossword
