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The US Space Force is preparing for as many as 87 satellite launches from Florida’s Space Coast in 2023. Photo/Spaceflightnow
“We estimate there will be approximately 87 launches in calendar year 2023,” said Lt. Col. Colin Mims, commander of the 1st Range Operations Squadron at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Launches in 2023 will be the busiest compared to 2022 which recorded 57 launches. Space Force Station at Cape Canaveral and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center had the most launches in 1966 and 2021, with 31 launches.
Read also; SpaceX First launch in 2023, Falcon 9 Rocket sends 114 satellites into orbit
SpaceX will begin its 2023 launch schedule at Cape Canaveral using the Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday (3/1/2023). The mission, dubbed Transporter 6, was SpaceX’s sixth dedicated satellite shared launch, carrying 114 small satellites and micro payloads into polar orbit around the world.
SpaceX plans to launch six to seven missions from Florida in January, including the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket on Jan. 12 from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Falcon Heavy, created by fusing together three Falcon 9 rocket cores, will launch a pair of satellites into high-altitude geostationary orbit for the Space Force.
Meanwhile, the United Launch Alliance’s new medium-heavy class Vulcan rocket will launch for the first time in the coming months. Vulcan’s first launch will carry a commercial lunar lander built and owned by Astrobotic into space, as well as two test platforms for Amazon’s planned Kuiper satellite internet network.
A second Vulcan launch could occur later this year bringing Sierra Space’s first Dream Chaser cargo ship to the International Space Station. Followed by the first launch of the Terran 1 rocket assembled by Relativity Space, a startup in California.
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The Terran 1 rocket is designed to send a small to medium-sized payload, with a lift capacity of nearly one ton, into space in a polar-synchronous orbit with the sun.
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