Space Coast gears up for another record-setting year in 2024

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Florida’s Space Coast is on track to see more than 70 launches before the end of the year.

▶ WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS

Florida’s Space Coast is on track to see more than 70 launches before the end of the year.

It’s already surpassed the 57 record-setting launches seen in 2022. And things may be even busier in 2024.

Read: Police search for person of interest after deadly shooting at Ocala mall

One of the first missions to lift off will be the maiden flight of ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket.  It will launch as soon as January 8th, and will carry a commercial lunar lander for NASA, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander.

Another Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9.  The Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander will launch to a landing site at the Moon’s South Pole region.

Read: SEE: Deadly shooting at Ocala mall ahead of Christmas holiday

Meanwhile, NASA and its commercial partners, Boeing and SpaceX, have three Commercial Crew Program missions set to fly from Florida’s Space Coast, setting up another busy year of traffic for the International Space Station in 2024.

Teams are readying for the short-duration Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner no earlier than April. Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX will continue crew rotation missions to the orbiting laboratory with Crew-8 expected no earlier than mid-February and Crew-9 to follow in mid-August.

Read: Christmas Eve forecast: Breezy and mild temps

And NASA is still targeting November of 2024 for the launch of Artemis II, a crewed mission around the moon.

It will be the first crewed lunar mission in more than five decades.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.

©2023 Cox Media Group