It is interesting to watch SpaceX continue to massively expand, with the goal of going from 61 launches last year to 100 launches this year.
SpaceX’s old record for a month was 7 launches, but in March they completed 8 launches, and almost did 9 but their latest launch had technical difficulties, and the closest they got to launch during the past two days was an abort with 2 seconds to go. They will try a 3rd time to launch this rocket tomorrow.
If SpaceX could do 9 launches/month, that would be 9 12 = 108 launches/year, or enough to meet their goal of 100 launches.
With Starlink now being profitable, they have a big incentive to launch as often as possible. The more they launch, the more they make!
SpaceX is now scheduled to launch a batch of 10 communications and missile tracking satellites on the Tranche 0 Flight 1 mission for the Space Development Agency (SDA) on Saturday, April 1, 2023. A first attempt on Thursday was aborted at T-3 seconds.
The flight will take off from launch site SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The satellites will be placed into a 1,000 km orbit, inclined 80 degrees.
The Falcon 9 launch vehicle will use booster B1075-2, which previously launched the Starlink 2–4 mission. After separating from the second stage, the booster will return to Landing Zone 4 at the launch site. The Falcon 9 second stage will be deorbited south of South Africa a couple of hours after the launch.
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