Double launch day complete with SpaceX, ULA successes

A busy week on the Space Coast saw two rockets launch within hours of one another as both SpaceX and United Launch Alliance had missions to proliferate a pair of competing satellite constellations.

The second launch came amid clear, blue skies as a ULA Atlas V lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 at 8:09 a.m.

Its payload was 27 satellites for SpaceX competitor Amazon for its Project Kuiper constellation. It marked the third time ULA has flown operational satellites for Amazon.

It also marked ULA’s fourth mission of the year, with three Atlas V rockets for Project Kuiper as well as ULA’s new Vulcan rocket on its first national security mission in August.

It also became launch No. 83 of the year by all launch providers on the Space Coast.

Launch No. 82 lit up the skies before dawn when a SpaceX Falcon 9 carried 28 more satellites for that company’s own broadband internet constellation Starlink. That rocket lifted off from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 4:39 a.m.

Its first-stage booster flew for the 22nd time, making a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic.

SpaceX has also flown a pair of missions for Amazon this year, even though its Starlink and Project Kuiper will be competing for customers. Starlink has had more than 8,400 satellites launched while this new batch of satellites for Project Kuiper will bring its total to 129 among five launches so far.

Amazon has contracted with ULA, Blue Origin, Arianespace and SpaceX to send up nearly 100 launches by 2029 to get 3,232 satellites into low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX has now flown 78 of the 83 missions from either Cape Canaveral or neighboring Kennedy Space Center this year. That includes its latest flight from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A on Wednesday, when it sent up three space weather satellites for NASA and NOAA.

The only other launch service provider to fly on the Space Coast this year is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which saw the debut flight of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket in January.

Its second flight is targeted late October or early November carrying a pair of Mars-bound satellites for NASA’s ESCAPADE mission.

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