Is SLC-40 launch cadence record breaking?

[FutureSpaceTourist]

From July 9th to August 7th (29 days), local time, SpaceX has had 6 orbital launches from SLC-40, all successful.

If the next launch goes on time on the 10th it will be 7 launches in 32 days, the last 6 of those in 26 days.

I know both the USSR and US had periods of frequent launches decades ago, but is SpaceX setting new records? At least for the same pad?

[FutureSpaceTourist]

What’s the most launches from the same pad in a year?

https://twitter.com/alexphysics13/status/1689860024418324480

What's even nicer is this will be the 31st launch by SpaceX from SLC-40 in 2023 meaning the company will have launched more times already this year than in 2022. We're still 4.5 months away from the end of the year.

[AmigaClone]

What’s the most launches from the same pad in a year?

On 2022, SpaceX broke the record number of launches of a rockets belonging to the same rocket family in a year. The old record was set in 1978 with 59 rockets of the R-7 family (Soyuz-U, Vostok-2M, and Molniya-M)

Most of the launches from the old record originated at one of the two pads of LC 43 in Plesetsk, with a total of 34 launches from that complex (18 from LC43/3 and 16 from LC43/4). Three other pads were used that year to a lesser extent.

 

[Vahe231991]

SpaceX just had another launch from SLC-40 today, this time involving Starlink Group 6-10. With the Starlink Group 6-11 and O3b mPOWER 5 & 6 scheduled for launch later this month, the SLC-40 launch pad will be seeing SpaceX break a brand new launch cadence record from the SLC-40 launch pad.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

SLC-40 has now done three orbital launches in 8 days:

[…]

Launchpad SLC-40 turnaround time: 3 days 23 hours 59 minutes
(the previous launch from this pad was Starlink Group 6-17 on Sep 20, 2023 UTC).

It's another four-days turnaround of SLC-40 for the second time in a row, resulting in a 3 launches from this launchpad in just 8 days!

FYI: median turnaround time for SLC-40 is currently 6.84 days *
* – based on the last 30 launches.

[…]

[FutureSpaceTourist]

SpaceX has now achieved 10 successful launches in 29 days. If you use UTC all were in September, from the early hours of September 1st to just under 29 days later on September 30th.

6 of those launches were from SLC-40.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

A bit of digging shows that the R7 has previously achieved very similar records (if Wikipedia's R7 flight log is correct):

Date & Time (UTC)	Configuration	Launch Site	Result	Payload	Remarks
03 October 1973, 13:00	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 596 (Zenit-2M)	Parachute failed to deploy
06 October 1973, 12:30	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 597 (Zenit-4MK)
10 October 1973, 10:45	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 598 (Zenit-4M)
15 October 1973, 08:45	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-1/5, Baikonur	Successful	Kosmos 599 (Zenit-2M)
16 October 1973, 12:00	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-43/4, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 600 (Zenit-4M)
19 October 1973, 10:26	Molniya-M (8K78M)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Molniya 2-7
20 October 1973, 10:14	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-43/4, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 602 (Zenit-4MK)
27 October 1973, 11:09	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 603 (Zenit-4M)
29 October 1973, 14:00	Vostok-2M (8A92M)	LC-43/4, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 604 (Tselina-D)
31 October 1973, 18:24	Soyuz-U (11A511U)	LC-43/3, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 605 (Bion 1)
02 November 1973, 13:01	Molniya-M (8K78M)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 606 (Oko)

In October 1973 that's a total of 10 launches in 28 days, 5 hours and 24 minutes with 5 from launch site LC-41/1. Or including the first flight in November, 11 launches in 30 days and 1 minute, with 6 from LC-41/1. The first 3 of those launches from LC-41/1 were in 2 hours 15 minutes less than 7 days.

So SLC-40 was just over a day quicker to 6 launches. I don't know if the R7 had a tighter grouping of launches post 1973.

[Vahe231991]

A bit of digging shows that the R7 has previously achieved very similar records (if Wikipedia's R7 flight log is correct):

Date & Time (UTC)	Configuration	Launch Site	Result	Payload	Remarks
03 October 1973, 13:00	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 596 (Zenit-2M)	Parachute failed to deploy
06 October 1973, 12:30	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 597 (Zenit-4MK)
10 October 1973, 10:45	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 598 (Zenit-4M)
15 October 1973, 08:45	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-1/5, Baikonur	Successful	Kosmos 599 (Zenit-2M)
16 October 1973, 12:00	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-43/4, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 600 (Zenit-4M)
19 October 1973, 10:26	Molniya-M (8K78M)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Molniya 2-7
20 October 1973, 10:14	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-43/4, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 602 (Zenit-4MK)
27 October 1973, 11:09	Voskhod (11A57)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 603 (Zenit-4M)
29 October 1973, 14:00	Vostok-2M (8A92M)	LC-43/4, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 604 (Tselina-D)
31 October 1973, 18:24	Soyuz-U (11A511U)	LC-43/3, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 605 (Bion 1)
02 November 1973, 13:01	Molniya-M (8K78M)	LC-41/1, Plesetsk	Successful	Kosmos 606 (Oko)

In October 1973 that's a total of 10 launches in 28 days, 5 hours and 24 minutes with 5 from launch site LC-41/1. Or including the first flight in November, 11 launches in 30 days and 1 minute, with 6 from LC-41/1. The first 3 of those launches from LC-41/1 were in 2 hours 15 minutes less than 7 days.

So SLC-40 was just over a day quicker to 6 launches. I don't know if the R7 had a tighter grouping of launches post 1973.

The listing of R-7 launches in the late 1973 timeframe at Wikipedia is indeed correct and is taken from Jonathan McDowell's list of launches involving the R-7 family.

[AmigaClone]

For short periods or relatively small number of launches, launch pads used by the R-7 family have seen rates that are comparable or even faster than the rates we have seen for the same time period in the past 21 months at SLC 40.

One record in particular I don't see SpaceX even attempting would be to two Falcon 9 with a crew dragons launching within 48 hours from each other from the same pad. The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 8 in under 48 hours in October 1969 (Soyuz 7 launched between the two but used a different launch pad).

A question to ask is how long after one of these bursts of activity was one of the pads involved ready for another burst?

[FutureSpaceTourist]

The listing of R-7 launches in the late 1973 timeframe at Wikipedia is indeed correct and is taken from Jonathan McDowell's list of launches involving the R-7 family.

Checking Jonathan’s list shows that the October 1973 grouping is indeed the peak of R-7 family flights. So if SpaceX achieve their aim next year of 12 flights in a month, it will be a new global record.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

A question to ask is how long after one of these bursts of activity was one of the pads involved ready for another burst?

After its 3 launches within 7 days in October 1973, LC41-1 was used twice again later in October, twice in November and twice in December. December only had 4 flights total (November had 7). So can’t tell if it could have done another burst, but it was in regular ongoing use.

[AmigaClone]

A question to ask is how long after one of these bursts of activity was one of the pads involved ready for another burst?

After its 3 launches within 7 days in October 1973, LC41-1 was used twice again later in October, twice in November and twice in December. December only had 4 flights total (November had 7). So can’t tell if it could have done another burst, but it was in regular ongoing use.

The idea behind my previous question was the following question.

Did the Soviet Union defer some of their regular (for that time frame) inspections and maintenance on the launch pads involved in a burst, when one was occurring, and how long might they have needed to conduct the deferred inspections and/or maintenance after one of those 'bursts' of launches occurred?

It might be interesting to compare the R-7 family and the Falcon 9 in terms of the total time between different number of launches from the same pad. I suspect the R-7 family will either have faster or at worse comparable turnaround times than the Falcon 9 on SLC 40 for periods under 5-8 weeks. After that time Falcon 9 will have the faster turnaround time until either the first Falcon 9 launch after the Amos-6 incident or the first Falcon 9 launch period.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1722098742533210545

SpaceX launches every 3 days from the Cape in Florida, next year every 2 days

[whitelancer64]

For short periods or relatively small number of launches, launch pads used by the R-7 family have seen rates that are comparable or even faster than the rates we have seen for the same time period in the past 21 months at SLC 40.

One record in particular I don't see SpaceX even attempting would be to two Falcon 9 with a crew dragons launching within 48 hours from each other from the same pad. The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 8 in under 48 hours in October 1969 (Soyuz 7 launched between the two but used a different launch pad).

A question to ask is how long after one of these bursts of activity was one of the pads involved ready for another burst?

The all-time record same pad turnaround time was at Baikonur 1/5, on August 11 and 12, 1962. Vostok 3 and 4 launched just under 24 hours apart for the first attempted in-orbit rendezvous.

The next launch from that pad was August 25, Venera 2MV-1 No.1, a Venus probe that failed to leave Earth orbit.

Soyuz 6 launched October 11, 1969, and Soyuz 8 on October 13, both from Baikonur 31/6.

The next launch from that pad was November 15, Kosmos-310, a Zenit-4 spy satellite.

All info from: https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/data/derived/launchlog.html