SpaceX Completes Hat Trick with 3 Launches in 36 Hours
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
SpaceX completed a hat trick over the weekend with three satellite launches from different coasts in 36 hours.
Elon Musk’s company wrapped up a busy weekend when a Falcon 9 booster launched the Globalstar FM15 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket lifted off at 12:27 a.m. EDT.
The first-stage booster landed on a drone ship in the Atlanic Ocean. This was the ninth launch and landing of the booster, which previously supported the launch of Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, one Starlink mission, Transporter-4, and Transporter-5.
It was 26th launch of the year for SpaceX, which is aiming for more than 50 flights of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
SpaceX kicked the weekend off just over 36 hours earlier when a Falcon 9 launched 53 Starlink broadband satellites from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket lifted off at 12:08 p.m. EDT (9:08 a.m. PDT).
It was a record 13th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, and now 10 Starlink missions. The stage landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX conducted its second launch in less than 24 hours on Saturday morning when a Falcon 9 carried a German reconnaissance satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket lifted off at 7:19 a.m. PDT (10:19 a.m. EDT) with the Airbus-built SARah synthetic aperture radar satellite for the German military from a fog-shrouded launch pad.
The Falcon 9’s first stage booster, launching for the third time, touched down at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg. It was SpaceX’s 125th recovery of an orbital class booster.
41 responses to “SpaceX Completes Hat Trick with 3 Launches in 36 Hours”
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Donny Rumsfeld should be happy that his concept is coming true. The gap between the US and the rest of the world just keeps getting wider.
Which is why more and more actors have a vested interest in taking Elon Musk and SpaceX down.
Think of the movie that was about Tucker, and he only upset the Detroit folks.
Fortunately for Musk, Lloyd Bridges is no longer in the Senate. 🙂 And the “Detroit folks” are a shadow of their former 40s selves too. They’ve got the Stumbler in Chief on their side, but that isn’t proving to count for much beyond a few photo ops. What, I wonder, are the UAW and the Democratic Party going to do when both GM and Ford go broke?
Falcon 9 will live on even without Musk. Starship would die without him. But Falcon is secure. Nothing is going to take that system down.
Not unless SpaceX is in bankruptcy like some folks are hoping and Legacy Space buys it, then adds in their “costs” so it’s offered at a price that is “realistic”…
I think that’s just what will happen when Starship goes operational. I fully expect the government to step in and not allow Space X to retire the system. First I expect a huge contract to be given them as a peace prize, but if they want to bring things to Starship, the government will find some way for Falcon to become a ULA vehicle. Then after a decade the gov will let it die. If that does not happen I fully expect a Kelly Space Act of 202X that will say SpaceX can manufacture launch vehicles but it can’t contract launches anymore.
Most amusing. Sen. Kelly would still have to be Sen. Kelly in order to even introduce such legislation. His chances of re-election this Nov. are fading. There’s also the matter of the Senate being in Republican hands come Jan. and Elon being a high-profile convert to the party. Thanks for playing though.
Dude, you missed out on my historical reference to 100 years ago….. Man I make those allusions for the enjoyment of folks like you who are normally stocked with enough history to get them. I’ll bet Matula and Oler got it.
And BTW don’t forget you were saying the similar things in 2019 and 20. A week is along time in politics.
I was familiar with the Air Mail Act of 1925, but not that it was also known as the Kelly Act. Touche. It doesn’t make your scenario any more plausible though.
In 2019 and 2020 I reckoned without the degree of criminal brazenness the Democratic Party actually displayed. Even so, the election theft was so hastily undertaken that there was no time to bring anyone but Biden along for the ride, hence the Republican’s 16-seat pickup in the House.
Sometimes a week is a long time in politics. Much of the time, though, it’s just another week. A typical week this year, for instance, has seen Biden lose an additional half to a full point in approval rating. The Dems have been counting on the death of Roe vs. Wade and their Jan. 6 circus to carry the day in Nov. It’s already obvious neither is going to happen.
The only people trying to seal elections is the GOP, and funny it’s Trump admin lawyers laying it all out.
With recession looming, SpaceX seems like the least probable candidate for failure and bankruptcy among major U.S. aerospace companies. I’d put legacy aerospace’s chances of being able to buy SpaceX about a mile behind AJR’s chances of buying ULA.
except the ability to make money
Okay, well that’s a whole other subject. Musk’s ability to attract investment dollars calls all sorts of things into question.
susp-ect those investment dollars are generally not just with him, drying up
Capital is going to be more cautious and harder to come by for many folks going forward. But Elon’s enemies – especially in the legacy auto patch – seem far likelier to suffer from this problem than do any of Musk’s holdings. In a bear capital market that old joke applies – “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.”
Heh.
he was an idiot
He was and he wasn’t. His foolishness was that he could push through his transformations while he was still in office. I think what you’re seeing with artillery, starlink, and open source software is very much a Rumseldfieldian transformation going on. His other foolishness was that you could make war so cheap that a nation could be at war all the time with its volunteer army and not bother the folks back home. He also had a flawed belief that you could get away from the big industry footprints now. But he wasn’t all wrong.
in my view Rummy was totally wrong. he believed that power made right and that “right” did not matter he and his administration invented lying for policy
Lying for policy long predates Donald Rumsfeld or even the United States. At a minimum, one must tip the hat to LBJ, for example.
there is exaggeration, lying and constant lying making one a liar
without a doubt since 1960 either the Bush43 or Trump 45 cross over to liars
“I did not have sex with that woman…Hillary Clinton”.
The Lewinsky affair is like Benghazi to the right wing; its easy to babble along with and of course it attacks characters who you folks are simply enthralled with. I dont understand either
First HRC had no real role in Benghazi and second it is/was the cost of an Empire doing business
the Lewinsky thing boggles me as well. Newt did the same thing and lied about it…while he was attacking BILL Clinton for a personal matter.
but on the other hand in Texas you had the GOP possing with a statute of a Rambo like trump holding an M16 where his stature is short about 150 to 180 pounds (he is a fat man) and the right wing is ok with that…as they are trumps endless lies
sort of strange
It was amazing to me that when I taught at Wellesley (an all women’s school), many still supported Teddy Kennedy. A man known locally to regularly bend waitresses over the table in the back room for his pleasure. When confronted with this, these rabid feminists still excused his behavior. Why?
Clinton was a stone cold liar. All he had to do is say yes, I did her. Then it would have gone away. But he chose to lie about it, to ridiculous lengths that even a child could recognize.
That said, I’d take Clinton over Biden or Obama any day…
the perils of public and private morality good comments on your part
one of the major revelations to me growing up from say 17 to 25 or 28 was the issue that a lot of people have with adult intimacy which to this day I separate from teenager to teenager intimacy. when I “Knew” the GOP was finished as a conservative Reagan like party was when the best Newt could do was go after Clinton for the Lewinsky thing. (and I was at the far end of that age group then). I understood why Newt was doing it, even when it was clear he was doing it as well…but one just knew that the party was intellectually bankrupt
I realize and accept that private morality is probably true to what a person really thinks then public utterances or even appearances…but I also tend to think that unless a person is trying to be a “public virtue statue” in a particular issue what they do on that issue has less relevance
After 92 when you voted for or against Bubba, you did so with the certain knowledge that bill loved women loving him. what male does not 🙂 but you knew in bubba’s case that it was essential to his “inner worth” and I assumed that HRC knew it. So Lewinsky did not come as a surprise to me. And bubba never really made a secret of his inner deamons or whatever we want to call them
Now Newt had run around preaching “the good book” and “morals” and “values” and it was a big of surprise to see wife number 2 was being dumped for “the younger woman” and it sort of surprised me how the right wing, those who were all aglow over Bubba and the red beret were ok with “Mr. Newt”. Get right down to it, it was the same with McCain.
but Little John never ran around hoping “you” would see the angels on his shoulders. Unlike Trump who was with healers, and preachers and Paula calling down angels of war 🙂 for him LIttle John never embraaced the right wing
IN a way Clinton could not say “I did her” because the GOP had brought it to a point where it was now a national issue on par with the Russians in Bosnia
I feel pretty comfortable with the passage of time admitting that my oldest daughter probably started one late night on Sky 1 of the Big E. then not so much. and pushed both her Mom, who is in heaven and I at the time probably would have denied it…to every one but particularly my oldest daughters grandfather. whose name at the time was ENTERPRISE 🙂 what to say
“|, to ridiculous lengths that even a child could recognize.” of course. I just stopped caring when I found out about Newts wife dying of cancer and being served with papers
all in all bubba was not as great a president as Ronaldus the Great, but did ok..far better than anything this century (although the jury is still out on Biden)
Some history:
I arrived at Wellesley in early June, 1990. Commencement was a few days away. I walked up to a gentleman in a black suit holding a notepad. I asked him where I could find the personnel department. He pointed to a Wellesley College police officer and said “ask her”. Before walking over to her I looked down at his notepad. He was sketching the rooflines overlooking where commencement would be held. It was then I realized he was Secret Service sketching rooflines for the SS snipers. The commencement speakers that year were Raisa Gorbachev and Barbara Bush. Interesting intro to my new job!
Fast forward two years to 1992, The commencement speaker was Hillary Clinton. Even at Wellesley, this was NOT a popular choice (even though she was an alum). It was seen as a blatant political statement. This is not what commencements should be about.
I loved my time at Wellesley. I learned a ton about my field, life, and politics. The folks I worked with were amazing. I learned about DEI before DEI was even a thing. In fact, I’ve probably forgotten more about DEI than most of my colleagues know. It saddens me that it is now just used by a small minority to bully others and threaten harassment if anyone disagrees with them about anything, or indeed asks them to do something.
life is fun right now
I say with full confidence that this feat will be repeated again but will happen within a one week period. I can’t say I know what’s going on in Falcon Ops but it’s starting to look like they might be heading to the point where the stock of boosters ready to fly on minimal notice might become a constant occurrence. Thus only payload and 2nd stage availability and integration would be set the pace. If that point has not already been crossed, then when it is, that will constitute a major step towards real responsive space launch capability.
Just speculation on my part, but I wonder if the SLS Wet Dress Rehearsal set for tomorrow factored into their launch cadence. The last time NASA tried the SLS WDR, it caused SpaceX to delay some launches. Perhaps they wanted to get the two Cape launches out of the way before WDR begins.
Yet another reason to call it RESPONSIVE space launch. 🙂
Perhaps but this clears the way so SpaceX is able to start assembling the launch tower for Starship.
Could well be. Once again, SLS gets to watch all the rocket kiddies next door having fun while it’s still grounded.
Based on just pad and drone ship turnarounds, SpaceX could probably manage 120 or more Falcon launches per year from its three extant pads. So the limiting factor is almost certainly 2nd stage manufacturing. Right now, it looks as though SpaceX is on track to do at least Elon’s updated goal of 60 Falcon launches for the year – possibly more. So that will establish a lower bound on maximum annual Falcon 2nd stage production capability. One cannot help but wonder how far beyond 60 it is possible to go. Perhaps we will get an updated answer in 2023.
Perhaps, but since SpaceX is filling the gaps with Starlink launches it could also be how fast it is manufacturing the Starlink satellites.
Fair point.
Well done!
Imagine if they spent their energy upgrading this rocket. High energy upper stage would do wonders for instance
It’s served it’s purpose so it is time to move on while letting it generate cash flow.
I kinda wanted them to finish out the original plans — reusable upper stage (even if it typically wouldn’t be very practical and wouldn’t apply at all to many flights), crossfeed for Falcon Heavy, Crew-rated Falcon Heavy, land-landing Crew Dragon, Moon and Mars landing versions of Crew Dragon… would have been cool.
But, Starship/SH is within reach, so might as well go for it and start really opening things up
Yes, that would be the Legacy Space way, building better biplanes until you are forced into building monoplanes.
Falcon/Dragon taught SpaceX served to teach them valuable lessons, now apply them to get Super Heavy/Starship flying. Now it is time to use those lessons to build a real spaceship and spend the iterations on it.
I don’t expect Starship 1.0 to make Mars, but I think Starship 3.0 or 4.0 will do so.
All of those things can join the Falcon 1e and Falcon 5 in the imaginary museum of things SpaceX decided to skip over.