CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX kicked off the second half of its 2018 launch schedule early Sunday with the successful delivery of a Canadian telecommunications satellite to orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — already the company’s 13th launch of the year.
News 6 partner Florida Today reported that the mission was the first of two planned in less than a month for Ottawa-based Telesat, and potentially the first of four SpaceX could fly during the same period from the Eastern and Western ranges, with the next targeted for Wednesday morning from California.
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At 1:50 a.m. Sunday, July 22, a 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket fired nine Merlin main engines to rumble from Launch Complex 40 on time at the opening of a four-hour window.
Less than 33 minutes later, after two burns by the rocket’s upper stage, the more than 15,500-pound Telstar 19 Vantage satellite was released on its way to an orbit high over the equator.
Earlier, about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster dropped to a tail-first landing on legs on the deck of a SpaceX ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.