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SpaceX is reportedly planning to launch its first Starlink mission of 2023 from California’s Vandenberg House Pressure Base.
Subsequent Spaceflight studies that SpaceX is making ready to launch Starlink 2-4 no sooner than (NET) 6:54 pm PST on January eighth, nearly eight weeks after unspecified points with a Falcon 9 rocket indefinitely delayed the mission. Whereas it’s unimaginable to substantiate if the whole two-stage rocket and fairing have been transferred, the Falcon 9 booster initially assigned to launch Starlink 2-4 on November 18th, 2022 as an alternative launched an Israeli Earth commentary satellite tv for pc six weeks later.
Fortunately, after a unusual and abrupt surge of technical (and indefinite) launch delays in November and December, SpaceX managed to finish its final three Falcon 9 launches with out problem. The profitable launch of the Falcon 9 booster assigned to Starlink 2-4 additional means that no matter prompted that surge is generally behind SpaceX. So will the belated launch of Starlink 2-4 itself.
Indicators of a return to positive footing are good for SpaceX’s plans to double down on its extraordinary development in 2022. SpaceX rounded out the yr with 61 profitable orbital launches – only one shy of doubling its nonetheless spectacular 31-launch file in 2021. 61 launches have been additionally sufficient for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy to tie an nearly half-century-old Soviet file for essentially the most annual launches accomplished by one household of rockets.
Merely repeating that feat in 2023 could be unprecedented within the historical past of spaceflight. However SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk have once more set their sights excessive and are focusing on as much as 100 launches this yr – a 64% enhance over 2022. Although it sounds unbelievable and shall be much more troublesome to attain, SpaceX’s plans for the primary month of 2023 are nearly precisely what one would anticipate to see from a single firm trying to launch (as much as) 100 instances in a single yr.
Off to the races
SpaceX kicked off 2023 with the launch of its sixth Transporter rideshare mission on January third. Unofficial public manifests like Subsequent Spaceflight and Ben Cooper report that SpaceX desires to launch Starlink 2-4 on January eighth, adopted by a batch of OneWeb satellites simply two hours later. SpaceX’s fifth Falcon Heavy launch is scheduled to observe as early as January twelfth, and a Falcon 9 rocket might launch the US army’s sixth GPS III satellite tv for pc on January 18th. One or two extra Starlink missions and the Amazonus Nexus geostationary communications satellite tv for pc might spherical out the second half of the month.
In the end, no matter prompted SpaceX’s late-year uptick in delays proved to be largely inconsequential. Regardless of lacking alternatives for an excellent busier yr and never launching as soon as between November twenty sixth and December eighth, December 2022 was SpaceX’s first seven-launch calendar month on file. If simply one in all SpaceX’s most chronically delayed missions (Hakuto-R) had prevented delays, it’s probably the corporate would have launched eight instances in a single month – equal to 96 launches if sustained for a yr.
In the meantime, if Starlink 2-4 does launch on January eighth, it can beat SpaceX’s 11.75-day West Coast turnaround file by 45 hours, breaking into the only digits (9.8 days) for the primary time. If its two East Coast Falcon pads may also push the envelope all year long and the corporate can preserve its extraordinary failure-free streak going, SpaceX has a surprisingly legit alternative to launch 80, 90, and even 100 Falcon rockets in 2023.
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