SpaceX aims for Friday night Cape Canaveral launch

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Dec 13, 2024

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — SpaceX has two Space Coast launches booked for the weekend with the first lined up for Friday night.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the RRT-1 mission carrying an undisclosed payload is targeting liftoff at 8:04 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 in the middle of a launch window that runs from 6:30-10 p.m. A backup launch window Saturday is targeting a a 7:59 p.m. liftoff.

Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts an 80% chance for good launch conditions at the launch site, and an additional moderate concern downrange in the booster recovery area. The forecast worsens to 60% on Saturday with high concerns for booster recovery.

The first-stage booster, which flew the Crew-9 human spaceflight, is making its fourth launch and will aim for a recovery landing in the Atlantic on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

It would mark the 89th orbital launch from the Space Coast in 2024 with SpaceX responsible for all but five of those.

The Space Force Station was also home to a nonorbital rocket launch Thursday when the Army and Navy tested a conventional hypersonic missile from Space Launch Complex 46.

The 90th orbital launch could come Sunday when SpaceX targets a two-hour window from 3:58-5:26 p.m. for a Falcon 9 liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A on the mPower-E Mission with satellites for Luxembourg-based communications company SES headed to medium-Earth orbit.

Also potentially coming before the end of the year would be the first ever launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 36.

The company is awaiting the OK for both a hot fire test on the pad and then launch from the Federal Aviation Administration.

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