For SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM
PORT CANAVERAL/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – A thoroughly sooty and heavily blackened 11x flown veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 booster sailed into Port Canaveral at noontime Monday, March 7 – barely four days after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center and successfully hauling another batch of 47 Starlink high speed internet satellites to low Earth orbit on Thursday morning, Mar. 3.
The 11x flown/landed 16 story tall Falcon 9 booster B1060.11 which accomplished a precision guided touchdown on the Just Read the Instructions (JRTI) ocean going droneship some eight and a half minutes after liftoff Thursday arrived into Port Canaveral together for the first time with both payload fairing halves just before noon Monday in a single operation – towed by recovery support ship Bob with its massive crane.
Bob had retrieved both fairing halves from the Atlantic Ocean waters and hoisted them on deck bringing them back to the Port while simultaneously towing the Falcon 9 landed upright on JRTI.
Moreover SpaceX continues to maintain a blistering pace of one a week launches with the next Falcon 9 Starlink launch targeted for Wednesday morning, March 9, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
At this rate SpaceX remains on track to potentially reach their incredible goal of about 50 launches total in 2022. Significantly more than the record breaking 31 launches achieved in 2021.
Enjoy our launch photos of the Falcon 9 booster B1060.11 on JRTI and fairing arrival with Bob – taken by Ken Kremer and Jean Wright for Space UpClose
The SpaceX fleet docked at their normal berthing spot at North Cargo 6 some 45 minutes after arriving at the mouth of Port Canaveral and sailing through the channel
SpaceX had launched the latest batch of Starlink high speed internet satellites to low Earth orbit on Thursday morning, Mar. 3, while flying once again on a once rare southeasterly trajectory from Florida’s Spaceport and while using only the third ever reused Falcon 9 booster to launch 11 times!
Thursdays Starlink 4-9 launch also counts as SpaceX’s 9th Falcon 9 launch in the first 9 weeks of 2022
Launch of the 229 foot tall (70 meter) two stage Falcon 9 took place Thursday, Mar. 3 at 9:25 a.m. EST (1425 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying a payload of 47 Starlink broad band high speed internet satellites to low Earth orbit on the Starlink 4-9 mission – during an instantaneous launch window.
This was also the 2nd launch in 3 days from the Florida Space Coast following the ULA Atlas V GOES-T advanced weather satellite launch for NASA and NOAA on Tuesday, March 1.
Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the Just Read the Instructions (JRTI) ocean going droneship some eight and a half minutes after launch – which was prepositioned in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas.
SpaceX crews began hoisting the fairings off Bob later Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, March 9 for a Falcon 9 launch of the next batch of Starlink satellites on the 4-10 mission to LEO from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 8:45 a.m. EST, or 1345 GMT.
The integrated Falcon 9 and nose cone encapsulating the payload of 48 Starlinks was raised at pad 40 – as seen in my photos from about 12 miles away across the Indian River Lagoon in Titusville.
The first stage booster B1052.11 supporting this mission previously launched three times on Arabsat-6A, STP-2, and COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 (CSG-2).
CSG-2 launched on Jan. 31, 2022
Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth and land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX plans a live webcast of the Starlink 4-10 mission that will begin about 15 minutes prior to the 8:45 a.m. ET liftoff.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl4-10/
Ken’s post launch commentary about the SpaceX Starlink 4-10 launch and ‘broomsticks’ featured on WFTV ABC 9 News Orlando
Watch Ken’s continuing reports about SpaceX Starlink, SpaceX Crew and Cargo Dragons, Artemis, SLS, Orion and NASA missions, DART, Lucy Asteroid mission, Blue Origin and Space Tourism, Commercial Crew and Starliner and Crew Dragon and onsite for live reporting of upcoming and recent SpaceX and ULA launches including Crew 1 & 2 & 3, ISS, Solar Orbiter, Mars 2020 Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, NRO spysats and national security missions and more at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com
Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics.
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