SpaceX may not have a moonbound rocket on the pad, but it is aiming to send up its second launch of the year from the Space Coast on Sunday afternoon. United Launch Alliance is set to lift off with its first about 10 hours later.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 more of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites is targeting a 4 p.m. liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a four-hour window with backup options on Monday beginning at 4:01 p.m.
The first-stage booster is making its 16th flight having previously flown on two crewed and two cargo missions to the International Space Station among others. SpaceX is aiming for a recovery landing of the first stage downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
It would be the second launch for SpaceX from the Space Coast and third for the company for the year having also flown once from California. Company officials have said 2024 could see as many as 12 launches per month or 144 for the year. Elon Musk’s company flew 96 orbital missions among Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets in 2023.
A lot is riding on Astrobotic moon lander set for launch Monday on new Vulcan Centaur
Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance, which flew only three times in 2023, is gearing up for its first-ever launch of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket on the Certification-1 mission from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 during a 45-minute window that opens at 2:18 a.m. Monday.
The replacement for its Atlas V and Delta IV family of rockets, the new Vulcan is set to send up a commercial lunar lander named Peregrine from Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology as the first of NASA”s Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions.
Also flying and attached to the Centaur upper stage and headed for a permanent deep space orbit are the partial remains and DNA of more than 150 people including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and actors James “Scotty” Doohan, Nichelle “Lt. Uhura” Nichols and DeForest “Dr. McCoy” Kelly, as part of Celestis Inc.’s Enterprise Flight. Once at its final destination, the stage will be Enterprise Station.
What’s headed to the launch pad on the Space Coast in 2024
If all goes well, it could be the first of six Vulcan flights on ULA’s manifest for 2023 while also flying nine more Atlas V and the final Delta IV Heavy mission.
The 16 missions would match its record set in 2009, and combined with SpaceX and a possible NASA launch of the Space Launch System on the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center, the Space Coast is on target to surpass its 2023 record of 72 launches.
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