(ORDO NEWS) — Hundreds of thousands of people traveled to the Space Coast for two consecutive weekends to see NASA‘s most powerful rocket, but the cancellations of the Artemis I mission left them disappointed.
The consolation for tourists is SpaceX, which continues to actively launch Starlink missions and its reusable Falcon 9 rockets.
Another batch of satellites was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 27, about 32 hours before NASA first postponed the Artemis I launch.
The next batch was sent on Sunday night, about 32 hours after NASA attempted to launch the Space Launch System rocket a second time.
In addition to 51 Starlink internet satellites, SpaceX sent an orbiter into space for Spaceflight.
It was launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral on Sunday. SpaceX has already made 40 launches this year.
SpaceX uses Vandenberg Base for some flights, but most launches are from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A or Cape Canaveral.
This year, SpaceX has made 12 launches from the Kennedy Space Center, including two with a crew – Axiom 1 and NASA Crew 4, which delivered astronauts to the ISS.
The NASA Crew 5 flight is scheduled for October 3rd.
Another 19 SpaceX launches were from Cape Canaveral. United Launch Alliance and Astra Space launched rockets from it.
Another company, Relativity Space, is close to trying its first launch of a 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral.
While the Artemis I flight was postponed due to technical problems, other companies lined up for the launch.
SpaceX is now continuing work on the Super Heavy-powered Starship at the Texas Starbase facility.
From NASA’s point of view, this is not a competition, but simply part of an international effort to achieve the ultimate goal of returning people to the surface of the moon and then flying to Mars.
Starship is still a prototype, while the SLS and Orion, although behind schedule and budget, are almost ready to fly.
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