SpaceX: 100th rocket launch of 2024 during Starlink doubleheader

Science: SpaceX launched its 100th rocket of the year on Tuesday morning (Oct. 15) and followed up with another launch just hours later. SpaceX’s centennial mission of the year launched from Florida, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s 23 Starlink internet satellites. The mission launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:10 a.m. EDT (0610 GMT). As usual, the Falcon 9’s first stage booster returned safely to Earth, landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” off the Florida coast about eight minutes after launch.

The company followed up that milestone two hours later with another launch from the opposite U.S. coast. SpaceX’s 101st launch of 2024 put 20 more Starlinks into space at 4:21 a.m. EDT (0821 GMT, or 1:21 a.m. local California time) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The first-stage booster from that flight also returned safely to Earth.

These two launches weren’t the only ones SpaceX has made in recent days. For instance, the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket sent NASA’s Europa Clipper mission toward the icy Jupiter ocean moon Europa on Monday. In addition, SpaceX’s Starship megarocket soared to space on a test flight Sunday (Oct. 13) that featured a dramatic launch tower catch of the vehicle’s Super Heavy first stage. And Europe’s Hera probe blasted off to space aboard a Falcon 9 on Oct. 9, heading toward an asteroid already hit by NASA’s DART mission.

Even more notable is that SpaceX received reauthorization on Oct. 11 to launch Falcon 9 missions after the rocket’s upper stage ran into problems during the Sept. 28 launch of the Crew-9 astronaut mission to the International Space Station. (Hera was granted a one-time exception by the Federal Aviation Administration.)