SpaceX made its 22nd launch in 21 weeks this year with another ride-share flight with several customers from the Space Coast on Wednesday.
A Falcon 9 on the Transporter-5 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex-40 at 2:35 p.m. literally within seconds of another major space activity miles up at the International Space Station when the Boeing CST-100 Starliner separated from the station to begin its trip back to Earth.
As the SpaceX mission control counted down from “10, 9, 8 …,” NASA mission control in Houston could be heard saying “Starliner remains on a timeline for undocking in 1 minute 15 seconds from now,” followed by SpaceX announcing “Ignition and liftoff … vehicle’s pitching downrange” back to NASA announcing, “Separation confirm, Starliner undocking complete.”
The polar trajectory of the launch meant the rocket flew along Florida’s East Coast over the ocean and cities farther south had a chance for a better view than normal.
This launch’s first-stage booster flew for the eighth time, having been previously used on Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, one Starlink mission and Transporter-4. The company was able to make another recovery on the Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at CCSFS.
The transporter missions for SpaceX are open to small satellites from multiple companies. Customers on this flight included a demonstration mission from Nanoracks on cutting metal in space and viability of reusing discarded spacecraft. Also flying up was an OmniTeq communications satellite within which will be the ashes of more than 40 people organized by the company Celestis. The rocket brought up 59 spacecraft this time around.
SpaceX is on pace to blow away the record of 31 launches it performed in 2021, with CEO Elon Musk saying it could even shoot for 60 this year.
Most of its launches have been Starlink missions as part of its growing constellation of internet satellites in low-Earth orbit. It’s also launched two missions with humans on board its Crew Dragons from Kennedy Space Center this year with the next flight set for September.
Also coming up is a Falcon Heavy mission to send a probe to the asteroid Psyche, now targeting no earlier than Sept. 20.
This marks the 160th launch for the company since 2008, and the 122nd successful recovery of a booster.
