SpaceX successfully launched a batch of Starlink internet satellites from Florida's Space Coast this past Saturday, while NASA announced plans to roll its massive Artemis 2 moon rocket back to the launch pad next week, targeting an early April liftoff for a historic crewed lunar test flight.
Starlink Mission Soars on Pi Day
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday, March 14, carrying 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. After multiple delays, the Falcon 9 finally lifted off at 8:37:10 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 on Saturday morning.
The rocket headed northeast, so people north of Cape Canaveral had a shot at seeing it. SpaceX managers had until 10 a.m. to execute the launch if necessary, but conditions proved favorable despite a cloudy morning.
Saturday was Pi Day—March 14—and SpaceX timed the launch perfectly. Pi shows up in orbital calculations, so the timing felt fitting.
Booster B1095 was flying for the sixth time, having already launched five other Starlink batches. About 8.5 minutes later, the booster nailed a landing on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. That was the 153rd landing on that drone ship and SpaceX's 584th booster landing overall—routine stuff now.
Artemis 2 Gears Up for Lunar Journey
While SpaceX was launching, NASA was prepping to roll the Artemis 2 rocket back to Launch Pad 39B next Thursday night. NASA wants to launch April 1 at the earliest, but has to go by April 6 or wait another month—the moon's orbit doesn't cooperate otherwise.
The four-person crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen from Canada—will spend nine days looping around the moon. NASA officials completed a two-day flight readiness review, with all teams giving a 'go' for launch, pending the completion of final work before rollout.
NASA's Lori Glaze made clear this is a test flight with real risks, but the team and hardware are ready to go.
Overcoming Technical Hurdles
Getting Artemis 2 to the pad has been rough. The long-awaited flight was initially slated for early February but faced delays due to hydrogen fuel leaks and, more recently, issues with the rocket's upper stage propellant pressurization system.
Engineers fixed the hydrogen leaks by swapping out bad seals in the umbilical lines at the pad. But the upper stage issue was trickier—crews couldn't reach it at the pad, so they had to haul the whole rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
In the VAB, they found a loose seal in a helium fitting. Helium pressure pushes fuel through the engines and helps drain the lines. Replacing that seal fixed the problem. While they were at it, they swapped batteries in the self-destruct system, the boosters, both stages, and charged up the Orion's abort system batteries.
Shawn Quinn, who runs Artemis ground systems, praised his team for figuring out the helium problem fast and getting the rocket ready to roll. The work in the VAB went smoothly. The 12-hour journey to Pad 39B starts Thursday night.
For an April 1 launch, liftoff is expected at 6:24 p.m. EDT, followed by a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean nine days later.
