Falcon 9

SpaceX launched its second Falcon 9 rocket of the day Saturday night. Turkey’s Turksat 5B geostationary communications satellite rode a Falcon 9 into orbit on a trajectory due east from Cape Canaveral. Liftoff occurred at 10:58 p.m. EST Saturday (0358 GMT Sunday).

SpaceX deployed 52 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Saturday after a predawn launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base that routed a Falcon 9 rocket on an unusual track southeast from the West Coast spaceport over Baja California.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:41 a.m. PST (7:41 a.m. EST; 1241 GMT) with 52 more Starlink internet satellites. The rocket’s reusable first stage booster made its 11th flight to space, then landed on an offshore drone ship.

SpaceX aims to set a new record for rocket reuse Saturday with the launch of a Falcon 9 booster from California on an 11th trip to space, carrying more Starlink internet satellites into orbit. If schedules hold, another Falcon 9 will blast off from Florida’s Space Coast about 18-and-a-half hours later with an all-electric Turkish data relay spacecraft.

SpaceX is set to close out the year with three Falcon 9 rocket flights in a span of about 72 hours from launch pads in Florida and California, carrying another batch of Starlink internet satellites, a Turkish data relay spacecraft, and a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

SpaceX launched a refrigerator-sized NASA X-ray observatory from Kennedy Space Center into an unusual orbit hugging the equator Thursday, beginning a $214 million mission to study black holes and super-compact neutron stars.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) Thursday from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 deployed into orbit NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer spacecraft, an X-ray astronomy mission to study black holes and neutron stars.

A NASA astronomy satellite will be the smallest payload to ever get a dedicated ride on a Falcon 9 rocket when it takes off from Florida this week, but the SpaceX launcher will need to flex its muscles to reach the mission’s unusual orbit hugging the equator.

SpaceX completed a static fire test of a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in preparation for a launch Dec. 9 with the space agency’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer science mission.

SpaceX set a new record Thursday for the most missions by the company’s Falcon rocket family in a year, successfully sending a cargo of 48 Starlink internet satellites and two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral.