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SpaceX launches Space Force Falcon Heavy mission from Florida, lands at Cape Canaveral

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches the Space Force's USSF-67 mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023. The rocket's side boosters landed at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station while the center core was expended.

SpaceX

Florida's Space Coast, already known for the rumble of rockets and window-rattling sonic booms triggered by their return landings, will hear even more of the latter moving forward thanks to launch performance changes made by SpaceX.

For several years, crewed launches to the International Space Station have featured Falcon 9 booster landings on drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean, but the company this week said it was able to take advantage of "extra performance" to start landing boosters at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during those missions. Over the course of a year, that could translate to up to a half dozen more booster landings at Landing Zones 1 and 2 and just as many sonic booms when those 162-foot boosters return.

"We have a little bit of extra Falcon performance," Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, told reporters during a pre-launch briefing this week. "It's advantageous to get the first stage back to the landing site because then we don't have to worry about recovery weather and the drone ship."

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Having "extra performance" ultimately translates to fuel. When SpaceX began using the upgraded Crew Dragon capsule in 2020, there wasn't enough fuel left over after launch to justify flying all the way back to the Cape, so drone ships have met the boosters "halfway" in the Atlantic. Since then, SpaceX has refined the process to the point where there is not only enough performance, but with a comfortable margin.

"We've always had this kind of capability before," Gerstenmaier said. "We just weren't sure that we would always get the performance but the number of Falcon flights we've flown have allowed us to say that performance is available and can be used where it's needed to be used moving forward."

Gerstenmaier's comments came during a pre-launch briefing for SpaceX's next crewed mission: Ax-2, a private flight to the International Space Station organized by Houston, Texas-based Axiom space. The team of four Peggy Whitson, John Shoffner, Ali AlQarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi is slated to launch from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A at 5:37 p.m. EDT Sunday, May 21.

After liftoff, the rocket's 162-foot booster will return to Landing Zone 1 and generate its signature triple sonic boom along the way, though it sounds more like a single boom by the time it reaches some spectators. Though startling, sonic booms are largely harmless to humans, wildlife, and infrastructure.

Since the first touchdown at the Cape in 2015, SpaceX has successfully landed boosters 192 times.

For the latest, visitfloridatoday.com/launchschedule.

ContactEmre Kellyataekelly@floridatoday.com. Follow him onTwitter,Facebook,andInstagramat @EmreKelly.

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Florida will hear more sonic booms as SpaceX squeezes performance out of Falcon 9 rocket - Florida Today