🚀 Starship Launch! SpaceX Shifts Strategy 🔥
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SpaceX’s crew missions are shifting their launches to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Construction is underway at Launch Complex 39A, a project focused on accommodating SpaceX’s Starship rocket. Simultaneously, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches are continuing from Pad 39A, while teams install a Crew Access Arm at Pad 40 in preparation for the Crew-12 mission later this week. All future Crew Dragon flights will depart from Pad 40. This strategic realignment prioritizes focused efforts on Falcon Heavy launches and the imminent Starship rollout from the Cape, marking a significant transition in SpaceX’s operational strategy.
PREPARATIONS FOR STARSHIP: A PAD RECONFIGURATION
Construction of a new launch tower for Starship is well along about 1,000 feet east of the existing tower at Pad 39A, still inside the facility’s circular perimeter. SpaceX aims to launch the first Starship flight from Kennedy Space Center later this year, following a series of flights from the company’s Starbase test site in South Texas. This ambitious undertaking signifies a fundamental shift in launch operations at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
PAD 39A: A MULTI-MISSION FACILITY
Pad 39A has historically served as a critical launch site, initially for Saturn V rockets and later adapted for the Space Shuttle program. Following SpaceX’s acquisition of the site in 2017, it became the primary launch location for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Despite the impending arrival of Starship, the pad remains a vital component of SpaceX’s operations, particularly for Space Force and NASA payloads. The next Falcon Heavy launch is scheduled for no earlier than April, with no more than a handful of flights per year planned for the rest of the 2020s. Ground teams installed a Crew Access Arm at Pad 40 ahead of the first crew launch there in 2024.
THE CREW ACCESS ARM: A TEMPORARY REMOVAL
Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, explained a key reason for removing the crew arm at Pad 39A. The bearings that connect the arm to the launch pad’s tower need repairs. “get access to those, the arm needs to be removed,” Gerstenmaier said. “Those bearings have to come out and they have to be reinstalled. We’ll do that work at the Kennedy Space Center. And the intent there is, we don’t need to put the arm back up … When we get a call-up for a mission and we have to go fly a mission, if it requires that, we have plenty of time to get the arm back up.” SpaceX officials stated that if needed, they could reinstall the crew arm for Dragon missions launching from Pad 39A.
SHIFTING LAUNCH OPERATIONS: PAD 40 ASCENDS
SpaceX has continued launching Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from Pad 39A amid the nearby construction work to prepare for Starship flights. “That doesn’t impact our ability to launch from the pad,” Gerstenmaier said. Lee Echerd, a SpaceX senior mission manager for human spaceflight, stated, “That will include all Dragon missions going forward.” Pad 40 has been the primary Falcon 9 launch site for most of the rocket’s history, while Pad 39A provided a location for crew launches and an augmentation to support SpaceX’s growing launch cadence. But there are signs the Falcon 9 launch cadence, which reached 165 missions last year, may be peaking as the company turns its attention to Starship. SpaceX has steadily reduced the time it takes to reconfigure Pad 40 between launches, cutting the turnaround time to less than 48 hours.
FUTURE LAUNCH PLANS AND LOGISTICS
With the arrival of Starship, SpaceX is suspending Falcon 9 flights from Pad 39A in favor of launches from nearby Pad 40, located a few miles to the south at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on property leased from the US Space Force. “It’s great to have two launch pads off the Florida coast. For our manifest going forward, we’re planning to launch most of our Falcon 9 launches off of Space Launch Complex 40. That will include all Dragon missions going forward,” said Lee Echerd, a SpaceX senior mission manager for human spaceflight. “That will allow our Cape team to focus at 39A on Falcon Heavy launches and hopefully our first Starship launches later this year.”
CREW DRAGON OPERATIONS: PAD 40 AS THE PRIMARY SITE
All future Crew Dragon flights will now depart from Pad 40 for the foreseeable future, beginning with the launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station later this week. “That will allow our Cape team to focus at 39A on Falcon Heavy launches and hopefully our first Starship launches later this year.” Ground teams installed a Crew Access Arm at Pad 40 ahead of the first crew launch there in 2024.
This article is AI-synthesized from public sources and may not reflect original reporting.