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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

On Sunday, December 2 at 18:32 UTC (1:32pm EST) or about 2 hours from when this story went live, SpaceX is going to attempt 3 milestones in one launch.

First, it will be the first time that one of their boosters will have flown 3 times.

The first launch of this booster was on May 11 (from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida) and the second was on August 7 (from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station). This launch will be from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California.

Attentive readers will notice that the same booster is being launched from three different launch pads, too. Another first.

Second, it is the most satellites in a single launch by a US company: 64 (15 microsats and 49 cubesats). Note the qualification, though; India launched 88 cubesats using their PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle [wikipedia.org]) into a 500 km altitude Sun Synchronous Orbit on Feb 15, 2017.

Third, this would be SpaceX's 19th launch of the year — it's most ever. And the year is not finished yet! Current plans are an ISS resupply mission on December 4, a GPS satellite launch on December 18, and an Iridium Next launch on Dec 30. That would work out to nearly two launches per month.

The launch will be carried as a live stream on YouTube [youtube.com] and should start approximately 15 minutes before launch time.

Sources: Ars Technica [arstechnica.com] and SpaceflightNow.com [spaceflightnow.com].

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