In the month of April, the US launched 18 rockets into space. Nearly all of them were successful. While the vast majority were for SpaceX Falcon 9s launching the company’s Starlink satellites, it was still a diverse set of rockets, including NASA’s Space Launch System, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, and ULA’s Atlas V.
All five of those rockets had a launch take place from Florida’s Space Coast, also known by the US Military as the Eastern Range. This range is overseen and supported by the US Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45. This unit provides range security, weather services, and other services to all those launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
For the first time since 1966, the Eastern Range supported more than four different launch vehicles in the same month. April’s record of five different vehicles beats the two tied months of February 1965 and July 1966, which both saw four unique vehicles.
On April 1, NASA successfully launched the Artemis 2 mission. This was the first crewed spaceflight to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, a poetic connection to the early Apollo missions that launched in 1965 and 1966.
The mission was an overall success and demonstrated that the Orion spacecraft and the SLS are ready for future crewed missions around the Moon.
