Posted on 02/27/2018 12:22:43 PM PST by BenLurkin
Two launch pads at Cape Canaveral could host a pair of satellite launches separated by fewer than 17 hours Thursday, a rapid-fire turnaround made possible by an automated range safety mechanism and other upgrades to cut the time between missions at the Florida spaceport.
A spokesperson for Hispasat, which owns a communications satellite set for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, told Spaceflight Now on Monday that the mission is scheduled for liftoff shortly after midnight Thursday, Florida time.
The Falcon 9’s two-hour launch window opens at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) Thursday, pending final approval from the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Space Wing, which runs the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral, a network of communications, tracking and safety installations used by every launch from Florida’s Space Coast.
Assuming Air Force officials grant SpaceX’s request for a launch date Thursday, it would be the first of two blastoffs from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a span of around 16-and-a-half hours.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
Update: Likely not going to happen.
“Atlas 5 launch on track for Thursday, SpaceX mission expected to slip”
Too bad. I was once down in Port Canaveral overnight with my family, waiting to board a cruise ship in the morning. at dinner the waitress told us that there was going to be a “rare” night launch of the space shuttle. They had scrapped a couple of launch times due to weather and were getting sort of desperate so night it was. Around midnight we went out to see what’s what. I had low expectations, after all we were miles away from the launch site. Holy cow, was I wrong. It was just like daytime when that rocket lit up. Really cool to be out there at midnight and see it look like it was noon. I really didn’t appreciate the sheer magnitude of the explosive force in those rockets until I saw that.
I thought they had renamed it Cape Kennedy.
I saw the Shuttle that broke up on re-entry go up at night from Patrick AFB. It was amazing!...
They changed it back to Canaveral a while back I believe.
Sounds cool. I saw my first rocket launch last week, a Falcon 9 out of Vandenberg, it was impressive - but the Shuttle, with those huge solid fuel boosters, must have been quite a sight!
They did but the people there wanted their name back (decades ago now), so now there's no such place as Cape Kennedy. There's Cape Canaveral, which is a small town just south of the Kennedy Space Center and there is also a Cape Canaveral Air Force Station which is used to launch some of the military rockets. There's also Port Canaveral which has cruise ships, fishing boats, and an occasional submarine.
Thanks to all who posted replies. I like the original name better ;)
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