Copyright New York Post
Elon Musk’s SpaceX swooped in Monday to complete Florida’s 94th liftoff of the year, breaking the state’s yearly record for launches in place of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origins, which had to scrap its mission last week. SpaceX took the historic spot when it launched the latest batch of its Starlink satellites aboard its Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The effort marked the 94th liftoff from Florida so far this year, a new record that would have gone to Blue Origins on Friday before it was forced to scrub its mission because of poor weather. Monday’s launch involved 29 satellites deployed into orbit for Starlink, and while it marked Florida’s 94th flight of the year, it was Falcon 9’s 144th — a new personal record for SpaceX. Rival Blue Origins is now hoping to launch its New Glenn rocket into orbit Wednesday, which would mark the rocket’s second-ever flight — and break the state record again. The rocket is set to launch between 2:50 p.m. to 4:17 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36, where Blue Origins has invested $1 billion to rebuild. As Musk has done with his SpaceX rockets, Bezos touted his rocket as the future of space flight, with the New Glenn missions aimed at achieving a landmark mission to Mars. The billionaires are currently competing over whose commercial space business will lead the historic flight to the Red Planet. Blue Origin’s upcoming flight will also include a bit of catch-up. as the company will attempt to land its heavy boosters after the launch, something SpaceX pulled off last year.
