CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX plans launched another Falcon 9 rocket from Florida late Saturday, marking a new record for launches performed on the Space Coast in a year’s time.
Starlink Group 6-24 launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (SFS) at 10:17 p.m. Saturday.
The mission is the 58th to launch so far this year between Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral SFS. Last year, those same launch pads saw 57 rockets go skyward, which at the time smashed the previous record of 31 orbital launches.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/naoBaVOsf9
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 22, 2023
“I never would have thought we would have ever seen rockets landing at the Cape vertically, like we do with SpaceX, and it was hard to believe a few years back that we’d see this kind of a cadence,” CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood said.
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Harwood credited SpaceX’s reusability for setting new records.
SpaceX has accounted for all but four of the 57 rocket launches from the Cape this year. The exceptions were Relativity Space, launching its 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket — the world’s first — during a March 22 demonstration mission and United Launch Alliance launching rockets on June 22, Sept. 10 and Oct. 6, Florida Today reported.
With the potential for tens of thousands of internet-beaming satellites in low-Earth orbit, the Federal Aviation Administration is warning Congress that by the mid 2030s, pieces of older satellites could possibly strike and kill someone.
Harwood said people shouldn’t be afraid as SpaceX strongly disputes the report.
“They (SpaceX) claim that their Starlinks are all designed to completely burn up in the atmosphere and there have already been scores of Starlinks come in without any sign of anything coming down,” Harwood said.
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