HAWTHORNE, Calif. — SpaceX is turning Thursday into one of the busiest launch days in its history, lining up a NASA astronaut mission, a classified national-security flight and a West Coast rideshare launch inside a single calendar day.
The headliner is Crew-13, the four-person flight to the International Space Station that is "go" for an 11:10 a.m. EDT liftoff on a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. But it is only the first act.
Astronauts in the Morning, a Spy Satellite at Night
Later the same day, a Falcon Heavy is set to rise from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 11:53 p.m. EDT carrying NROL-97, the first National Reconnaissance Office payload ever to fly on the triple-core rocket. A third mission, a Falcon 9 carrying a rideshare batch, is scheduled from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the California coast.
Running a crewed launch and a heavy-lift classified mission off the same stretch of coastline in one day is the kind of cadence that was unthinkable for any launch provider a few years ago. For SpaceX, it has become the expectation — a direct dividend of a reusable fleet that the company keeps turning around faster.
Three Boosters, Three Landings
The most striking visual may come from the recoveries. Crew-13's first-stage booster — flying its third mission — is slated to return to Landing Zone 40, while Falcon Heavy's two side boosters are set to touch down at Landing Zones 1 and 2. If the timing holds, it would mark the first time the Space Coast hosts landings at three Florida zones in a single day.
