SpaceX launches Israeli satellite

An early Sunday morning SpaceX launch marked the th orbital mission from the Space Coast from all companies for the year but also the th profitable mission for the workhorse Falcon rocket The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station s Space Launch Complex at a m carrying an Israeli communications satellite on the Commercial GTO mission The first-stage booster flew for the th time and made a recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions It was the nd launch of a Falcon since its debut in with the company only losing the rocket on two missions once in and then in July The company has also flown its larger Falcon Heavy times since but not yet so far in SpaceX has launched all but three of the Space Coast missions in with Blue Origin s New Glenn making its debut flight in January and United Launch Alliance having flown two Atlas V rockets on missions for Amazon s Project Kuiper in April and June ULA has its new Vulcan rocket lined up for its first national shield launch the USSF- mission for the Space Force but its launch date has not been broadcasted Blue Origin this week released the engines for its next New Glenn rocket are ready but isn t expected to fly until at least fall Meanwhile SpaceX will continue to launch regularly from both Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center The next KSC launch from SpaceX is the Crew- mission to the International Space Station no earlier than July The Commercial Crew Plan flight will take up two astronauts from NASA one for Japan s JAXA and one cosmonaut for Roscosmos to relieve the Crew- crew that has been on the station since March Richard Tribou Orlando Sentinel