Falcon 9

Continuing a record-breaking launch cadence, SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 rocket aloft Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 53 more satellites for the company’s Starlink internet network, the sixth Falcon 9 launch in 17 days and 33rd overall this year.

SpaceX sent another cluster of 53 Starlink internet satellites into orbit Sunday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the company’s 33rd mission of the year and sixth launch of July. Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 9:38 a.m. EDT (1338 GMT). The Falcon 9 booster landed on SpaceX’s drone ship parked downrange in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Saturday in preparation for liftoff Sunday with the company’s next batch of 53 Starlink internet satellites. Test-firings on the launch pad were once a customary part of every SpaceX launch campaign, but the company is phasing out the static fire tests for most missions as the Falcon 9 launch cadence has ramped up to an average of one flight per week

With 2022 barely half over, SpaceX launched its 32nd mission of the year Friday from California’s Central Coast, breaking the company’s record for most launches in a year and delivering 46 more Starlink internet satellites into polar orbit to provide global broadband service.

SpaceX called off a Falcon 9 launch attempt Thursday less than a minute before liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the company’s first terminal countdown abort in more than 18 months for reasons other than bad weather or range safety.

SpaceX’s 32nd launch of 2022 broke the company’s record for most Falcon 9 rocket flights in a calendar year, and cut in half the shortest turnaround time between two Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket with 46 more Starlink internet satellites occurred Friday at 10:39 a.m. PDT (1:39 p.m. EDT; 1739 GMT). A launch attempt Thursday was scrubbed with less than a minute remaining in the countdown.

SpaceX is poised to launch 46 more Starlink internet satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission will mark SpaceX’s 32nd launch since Jan. 1, breaking the company’s record for Falcon 9 flights in a year.

Fifty-three more Starlink internet satellites thundered into orbit from Cape Canaveral atop a Falcon 9 rocket Sunday on SpaceX’s 31st launch of the year, tying the company’s number of missions for all of 2021 and maintaining a pace of one flight per week.