KENNEDY SPACE CENTER \u2014 The Space Coast saw only one launch in all of September, but weather held Thursday and SpaceX knocked out two in just one day.<\/p>\n
Under a half moon and skeins of streaking clouds over the launch site, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifted off from KSC\u2019s Launch Complex 39-A following the flight earlier in the day of the Crew-13 mission<\/a> to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.<\/p>\n SpaceX\u2019s powerhouse rocket launched the NROL-97 mission at 11:53 p.m. carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.<\/p>\n Falcon Heavy lifts off from pad 39A in Florida for the 14th time! pic.twitter.com\/uuZLKNTdD7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n It marked the 58th launch from all providers on the Space Coast this year, only the 14th ever for Falcon Heavy, but the third so far in 2026. Essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together, it produces 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.<\/p>\n About eight minutes after launch, the two side boosters made a successful return to Canaveral\u2019s Landing Zones 1 and 2 lighting up the clouds with orange and red glows as they followed one another down after having broken off from the main core stage.<\/p>\n The signature double-punch of each rocket\u2019s sonic booms hammered the press site at KSC creating an eerie whistling sound off the side of the massive Vehicle Assembly Building.<\/p>\n Ahead of the mission SpaceX had issued a sonic boom advisory for the boosters\u2019 returns.<\/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 SpaceX warned in its media advisory.<\/p>\n Falcon Heavy\u2019s side boosters land on LZ-1 and LZ-2 pic.twitter.com\/dBPcNeggFx<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Their return actually marked the second and third sonic booms of the day after Crew-13\u2019s booster made a return to Landing Zone 40. It\u2019s the first time all three landing zones have been tapped for use at the same time.<\/p>\n The Falcon Heavy boosters made their second and fourth trips to space, both of which most recently flew on Aug. 30 on NASA\u2019s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope<\/a> launch.<\/p>\n SpaceX has limited its use of KSC\u2019s Launch Complex 39-A to just Falcon Heavy launches this year having shifted all of Florida\u2019s Falcon 9 launches to Canaveral\u2019s Space Launch Complex 40.<\/p>\n That has allowed SpaceX to focus on completing work on the Starship and Super Heavy launch tower adjacent the Falcon Heavy launch pad. SpaceX is also building two more towers at Canaveral\u2019s Space Launch Complex 37.<\/p>\n During the post-launch press conference for Crew-13 earlier Thursday, Juliana Scheiman, SpaceX\u2019s director of Dragon Human Spaceflight, said Florida\u2019s first Starship launch from KSC could still come before the end of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe intend to do at least one more launch from Starbase before our next launch out of the Cape, and we always look at flight data and look at how the mission went to inform our next steps, and so that\u2019s what we\u2019ll be doing before we make a plan for coming to the Cape,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The heavy-lift rocket is more than three times as powerful as Falcon Heavy producing nearly 17 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. It so far has made 14 launch attempts including the most recent this past Monday during which it made it to orbit for the first time<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of work that we need to go execute on Starship,\u201d Scheiman said. \u201cWe need to continue to demonstrate reusability on Starship, recovering the ship, recovering the booster, and reusing those.\u201d<\/p>\n She said preparation is going very well at 39-A.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve essentially done a lot of the initial build of the structures and the systems needed for launching Starship, and we\u2019re beginning to step into the sort of acceptance testing and operational testing prior to activation, so we\u2019re kind of through the main construction and going into the proofing, testing, and activation testing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Lori Glaze, associate administrator of NASA\u2019s Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate said the agency has been preparing for that moment as well, as NASA is counting on Starship to launch as part of next year\u2019s Artemis III mission as one of three rockets to fly concurrently alongside NASA\u2019s Space Launch System rocket and Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re also working with SpaceX and on our side as well to help support and make sure that we\u2019re ready as well when they\u2019re ready to bring Starship here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to be able to do thumbs up and say, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re all ready to go together on Starship.’\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t