On Thursday, October 20 at 10:50 a.m. ET, SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the tenth launch and landing for this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, and now five Starlink missions.
On Saturday, October 15 at 1:22 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the third launch and landing of this booster, which previously supported the launch of CRS-24 and one Starlink mission.
After 170 days in space, Dragon and Crew-4 astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti returned to Earth and splashed down off the coast of Florida at 4:55 p.m. ET on Friday, October 14.
Falcon 9 launched Dragon and the Crew-4 astronauts to the orbiting laboratory on Wednesday, April 27 at 3:52 a.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SpaceX and NASA are targeting Friday, October 14 at 12:05 p.m. ET, 16:05 UTC, for Dragon to autonomously undock from the International Space Station (ISS). After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately five hours later at 4:55 p.m. ET, 20:55 UTC.
Aboard the spacecraft will be Crew-4 astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti, who flew to the space station on Dragon when Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 27 at 3:52 a.m. ET.
Live webcast coverage of Crew-4’s return to Earth will begin about 20 minutes prior to undocking.
On Saturday, October 8 at 7:05 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the Intelsat G-33/G-34 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the 14th launch and landing of this booster, which previously supported the launch of GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, and 10 Starlink missions.
