CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — The very first space launch of 2023 took place in Florida as SpaceX was getting ready for the Transporter-6 mission.

What You Need To Know

  • The launch window was at 9:56 a.m. EST, on Tuesday, Jan. 3

  • Transporter 6 rideshare mission sent up 114 payloads

  • đź”»Scroll down to watch the launchđź”»

The popular Falcon 9 rocket sent the rideshare mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The launch window was at 9:56 a.m. EST, on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

On Saturday, Dec. 31, the 45th Weather Squadron gave an 80% chance of good liftoff weather.

When the launch was originally scheduled for Monday, Jan. 02, the percentage was at 90%.

First-stage booster B1060 has been on 14 missions, including:

Unlike other Florida launches by SpaceX, after the stage separation, the booster landed on a drone ship but at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the company stated in a press release.

And that means many might have heard a sonic boom as B1060 came in for a landing.

About the mission

The Transporter-6 is a smallsat rideshare mission. What is a smallsat? It stands for “small spacecraft” and it weighs about 397 pounds and is about the size of a large refrigerator.

However, while small, it can hold quite a bit. For the Transporter-6 mission, there are 114 payloads, which include “CubeSats, microsats, picosats, and orbital transfer vehicles carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time,” SpaceX stated.

And CubeSats and microsats and the rest? NASA has a whole classification of these tiny spacecraft.

As far as the owners of the 114 payloads, SpaceX has not released their names, but the Kennedy Space Center only listed them as “commercial and government customers”.

Watch the launch

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