SpaceX has three launches planned for the second week of January as the company furiously moves into the new year.
On Monday night, SpaceX is targeting coast-to-coast launches in Florida and California.
SpaceX is targeting 11:50 p.m. ET a Falcon 9 rocket launch with the OneWeb Launch 16 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Florida’s weather is excellent for Monday’s night launch. Launch weather officers with the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a less than 10% chance weather causes a scrub.
After liftoff, the first stage Falcon 9 booster will land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will make the second launch and landing for the rocket.
It’s possible those on Florida’s Space Coast could hear and feel the Falcon 9 booster when it breaks the sound barrier on reentry. The sonic booms from the rocket landings have been known to travel as far inland as the Orlando area.
Satellite operator OneWeb plans to deliver global high-speed internet in 2023 with a constellation of satellites similar to SpaceX’s Starlink service.
SpaceX launched another batch of OneWeb satellites in December.
After the OneWeb Launch 15 mission last month, the company said its constellation was 80% complete and had three more launches planned toward its first-generation constellation.
On the opposite side of the country, SpaceX plans to launch another Falcon 9 with 51 Starlink satellites at 8:15 p.m. PST on Monday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The forecast in California is less favorable as the state is getting slammed by a parade of atmospheric rivers. SpaceX said the launch forecast is 30% favorable for liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will return to Earth and land on the droneship called “Of Course I Still Love You” stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
This Starlink launch will add to the growing constellation of thousands of SpaceX satellites providing space-based internet worldwide.
There are backup launch opportunities on Tuesday for both OneWeb and Starlink launches.
The cherry on top of the launch calendar this week will be a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch with the USSF-67 mission for the U.S. Space Force.
SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Thursday, Jan. 12, after 5 p.m. EST to launch spacecraft part of the USSF-67 mission, including a Space Force Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM satellite. The Long Duration Propulsive ESPA 3A is also onboard this launch and hosts several experimental payloads as part of a rideshare mission.
Before NASA’s maiden launch of the Space Launch System rocket in November, the Falcon Heavy was the most powerful rocket in the world.
With its triple rocket boosters, a Falcon Heavy launch is a unique experience to see in person.
Falcon Heavy has 27 Merlin engines and three first-stage boosters compared to the Falcon 9, with one first-stage booster and nine Merlin engines. The Falcon Heavy produces more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff to get off the planet.
SpaceX lands its rocket boosters on land and at sea to reuse the hardware, driving down the cost of launches by millions of dollars.
With three boosters, the Falcon Heavy’s first stages perform a choreographed aerial ballet in the sky to return to Earth. One booster can land on a drone ship at sea, and two boosters head back to Cape Canaveral to land at Landing Zone 1 in near-perfect unison.
As the rocket boosters return to land, the sound reverberates across the Florida coast, causing sonic booms.
For this launch, the two side boosters will land at Cape Canaveral, and the middle booster will not be making a return trip.
This year will be even busier for SpaceX and the space industry as a whole.
Last week, Elon Musk’s space company kicked off 2023 with a ride-sharing Falcon 9 rocket launch sending up more than 100 small satellites into low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX achieved 61 launches in 2022, sending up a rocket nearly every week of the year. The company closed out December with seven additional launches.
According to SpaceX, after 2022, the Falcon 9 holds the world record for most launches of a single vehicle type in a single year.