SpaceX launched eight satellites responsible for emergency SOS alerts on Saturday night and made a land recovery of the rocket\u2019s booster that brought a sonic boom to parts of Central Florida.<\/p>\n
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com\/8Mbybg8lcx<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n A Falcon 9 rocket on the Globalstar 2-R Launch 1 mission lifted off at 9:12 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station\u2019s Space Launch Complex 40.<\/p>\n The first-stage booster for this mission made its 14th trip to space and made a recovery touchdown at Landing Zone 40 adjacent the launch pad.<\/p>\n Falcon 9\u2019s first stage has landed on Landing Zone 40 pic.twitter.com\/VzQ793nPdJ<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere is the possibility that residents of Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Indian River, Seminole, Volusia, Polk, St. Lucie, and Okeechobee counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the landing, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions,\u201d said a SpaceX advisory ahead of the launch.<\/p>\n The payload for the flight is a set of HIBLEO-4 replenishment satellites for Globalstar, which will be the first of two missions to update the Louisiana-based communication company\u2019s 17-satellite constellation.<\/p>\n These satellites support direct-to-handset emergency SOS alerts on Apple products.<\/p>\n The mission had initially been targeting launch in May, but was pulled from the manifest without explanation, although the booster for the mission has been switched since the originally announced date.<\/p>\n Space Coast launch schedule<\/a><\/p>\n The launch was the 52nd on the Space Coast<\/a> from all providers, with SpaceX responsible for all but seven of them.<\/p>\n United Launch Alliance has flown five, including one Vulcan and four Atlas V rockets. Blue Origin has flown New Glenn once. And NASA flew its Space Launch System rocket topped with the Orion spacecraft on the historic Artemis II mission<\/a>\u00a0that sent humans on a flyby mission around the moon.<\/p>\n ULA won\u2019t fly Atlas V again until Boeing\u2019s Starliner<\/a> is ready for its return to space, and Vulcan is awaiting fixes by Blue Origin to the BE-4 engines it supplies to ULA. Vulcans use two BE-4 engines on its primary stage and the fixes were announced following the revelation that a BE-4 valve was the likely culprit<\/a> behind a massive launch pad explosion at Canaveral\u2019s Launch Complex 36 in May.<\/p>\n Blue Origin is enacting the same fixes for its New Glenn rocket engines, which use seven BE-4s, while having to also rebuild the pad<\/a> at LC-36 before New Glenn can try and launch again.<\/p>\n Both ULA and Blue Origin, though, have said they plan to launch their respective rockets again before the end of the year.<\/p>\n NASA meanwhile won\u2019t fly its SLS again until Artemis III<\/a>, which is targeting flight in mid 2027, although NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Friday said the agency is targeting the stacked rocket\u2019s initial rollout to KSC\u2019s :Launch Pad 39-B for testing as early as November.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t