Will SpaceX launch the day after Friday's ULA's Vulcan liftoff? SpaceX halts liftoffs for now
(This story was updated to add new information about the Cape Canaveral launch schedule.)
Will a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lift off the pad Saturday morning, creating a back-to-back-day launch doubleheader following Friday's second-ever flight of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket?
That depends on what transpires behind the scenes this workweek at SpaceX. The company has announced it will not resume launching until engineers better understand why the Falcon 9 upper stage from Saturday's NASA Crew-9 mission splashed down in the ocean outside its target zone.
First, here's what we know about Friday's upcoming schedule at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. ULA is targeting the second-ever launch of its next-generation Vulcan rocket at 6 a.m.
ULA's inaugural Vulcan launch occurred in January. Friday's liftoff from Launch Complex 41 will serve as ULA's second certification mission with the Space Force to carry national security payloads.
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Regarding SpaceX, navigational warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency show the company may target 7:43-8:13 a.m. Saturday to launch a Falcon 9 on the Starlink 10-10 mission from Launch Complex 40. This uncrewed rocket would deploy a batch of internet-beaming satellites into low-Earth orbit.
However, the viability of this SpaceX mission remained unknown as of Monday afternoon.
Here's why: A different Falcon 9 lifted off on NASA's Crew-9 mission at 1:17 p.m. Saturday, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. But after rocket stage separation, the descending upper stage missed its oceanic landing target.
"After today’s successful launch of Crew-9, Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area," SpaceX officials said in a tweet.
"We will resume launching after we better understand root cause," the tweet said.
SpaceX has not publicly commented on the matter since. The Crew-9 Dragon docked with the ISS shortly after 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
"The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX NASA Crew-9 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on September 28. The incident involved the Falcon 9 second stage landing outside of the designated hazard area," said an FAA statement released Monday afternoon.
"No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation," the statement said.
Stormy weather across the Space Coast could render moot any questions about the weekend launch schedule. In the wake of Hurricane Helene's historic path of destruction, the National Hurricane Center continues monitoring a large low-pressure area in the western Caribbean Sea that has a 40% chance of tropical formation during the next seven days.
NWS forecasters in Melbourne predict a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms Friday and Saturday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. ULA officials said the forecast features 75% odds of "go for launch" weather during Friday's Vulcan window, with cumulus clouds posing the primary threat.
The FAA grounded SpaceX's Falcon 9 fleet for the second time in two months in late August after a first-stage booster tipped over and fell over amid explosions after landing aboard the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas out in the Atlantic Ocean. That uncrewed rocket had flown on the Starlink 8-6 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. FAA officials cleared SpaceX to resume flights two days later.
SpaceX previously halted flights for two weeks in July to investigate a liquid oxygen leak in a Falcon 9 second stage that caused a payload of Starlink satellites to deploy in the wrong orbit.
Vandenberg Space Force Base officials in California initially announced that a SpaceX Falcon 9 had been rescheduled to launch a payload of OneWeb satellites into low-Earth orbit on Tuesday night. But that mission was subsequently postponed to Oct. 9, an FAA operations plan advisory shows.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Will SpaceX launch the day after Friday's ULA's Vulcan liftoff?
