SpaceX and Boeing set for launch-packed holiday season on the Space Coast

Emre Kelly | Florida Today

After a slower-than-average second half of the year for Space Coast rocket launches, SpaceX and Boeing are slated to bring 2019 to a close with a mission-packed December.

SpaceX broke a two-and-a-half-month dry spell last Monday when a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with 60 Starlink satellites, setting the stage for at least three – and up to five – more flights through the end of the year.

SpaceX

First up on the Eastern Range is a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon spacecraft, which will take supplies to the International Space Station no earlier than 12:48 p.m. on Dec. 4. If previous ISS missions are any indication, this flight will include a booster landing at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 about eight minutes after takeoff. It will mark SpaceX's 19th uncrewed flight to the ISS.

In the second half of December, SpaceX is slated to take the JCSAT-18 / KACIFIC-1 communications satellite on a Falcon 9 from the Cape's Launch Complex 40. The spacecraft will provide coverage for Asia.

Two more missions could fly in December, though firm timing has not yet been established, and both could slip into 2020. First would be an "in-flight abort test" of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which was successfully test fired on Wednesday after an incident in April resulted in the destruction of an identical capsule. That uncrewed mission would simulate a mid-air emergency, giving the spacecraft a chance to use its SuperDraco thrusters to rapidly propel away from the Falcon 9 rocket. If successful, it would pave the way for astronauts to fly to the ISS sometime by the middle of next year.

Finally, SpaceX could launch another batch of 60 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral before the end of December. Exact timing hasn't been released.

Boeing and United Launch Alliance

Boeing and ULA, meanwhile, are targeting no earlier than Dec. 17 for an uncrewed "orbital test flight" of a Starliner spacecraft, which like Crew Dragon was selected by NASA to return American astronauts to the ISS from U.S. soil.

The mission will include most aspects of a full-fledged, crewed flight. If the launch, docking with the ISS, and landing are successful, it will set the stage for Boeing and NASA astronauts to visit the space station on a Starliner spacecraft no earlier than the middle of next year.

Starliner will take flight from Launch Complex 41 on ULA's Atlas V rocket.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

Upcoming Space Coast rocket launches:

Dec. 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Dragon spacecraft to ISS

Dec. 17: ULA Atlas V with Boeing Starliner test flight

Dec. TBD: SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon "in-flight abort" test

Dec. TBD: SpaceX Falcon 9 with JCSAT-18 communications satellite

Dec. TBD: SpaceX Falcon 9 with 60 Starlink communications satellites