SpaceX’s launch from Cape Canaveral Sunday night was the 30th of the year on the Space Coast.
A Falcon 9 carrying a communications satellite for Indonesia was launched from Space Launch Complex 40 of Cape Canaveral Space Station at 6:21 p.m.
Leaves! pic.twitter.com/NvRBKfsfWO
– SpaceX (SpaceX) June 18, 2023
The mission’s first supporting stage made its 12th flight, and the company managed to recover it aboard its drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean, the 201st recovery ever between Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters since 2015.
The Indonesian government’s SATRA satellite and Indonesian satellite operator PSN are heading into a geosynchronous transmission orbit. The satellite will provide broadband internet and communications capabilities to public use facilities in rural areas of Indonesia.
Falcon 9 first stage landed on A Shortfall of Gravitas drone pic.twitter.com/gGNYVw3IdB
– SpaceX (SpaceX) June 18, 2023
SpaceX has now flown 29 of its 30 launches so far this year from the Space Coast, with the only other Relativity Space and the 3D-printed Terran 1 launch back in March.
It is the company’s 240th orbital launch since 2008 and 128th from Cape Canaveral. SpaceX has made 40 launches so far this year, including launches in California. More than half of them came from the SLC-40. The site was leased to SpaceX in 2007 after supporting Titan launches from 1965-2005. So far since 2010 it has flown 194 space coast launches including KSC liftoffs in the last 13 years.
However, United Launch Alliance is scheduled to launch for the first time this year as early as Wednesday.
In connection with the second-to-last launch of the Delta IV Heavy, ULA is looking to fly the NROL-68 mission to send a classified payload to the National Reconnaissance Office. Liftoff is scheduled from Space Launch Complex 37 in Canaveral at 3:29 a.m.
The launch cadence maintains a pace that will break 57 space coast launches in 2022.
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