Tech mogul Elon Musk's commercial spaceflight company has a busy day ahead.
SpaceX is planning not one, not two but an ambitious three rocket launches within one day across the United States.
That includes two missions due to get off the ground Thursday, Oct. 1, in Florida – one of which has astronauts aboard – as well as another one all the way in California.
And it could all begin imminently.
Without further ado, here's a look at SpaceX's slam-packed schedule today for U.S. rocket launches.
Crew-13 astronauts to launch to ISS
SpaceX's first launch of the day will send a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station.
The venture, known as Crew-13, is a NASA mission contracted to the spaceflight company under the U.S. space agency's Commercial Crew Program. The four astronauts
selected for the mission will ride in a SpaceX Dragon capsule perched atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
The two-stage, 230-foot Falcon 9 – the most active rocket in the world – will provide the initial burst of thrust to get the Dragon vehicle to space. NASA and SpaceX are working toward getting the rocket off the ground at 11:10 a.m. ET at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, as well as Joshua Kutryk of the Canadian Space Agency and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, would then be expected to arrive at the orbital outpost by 7 p.m. ET.
Falcon 9 to launch rideshare mission in California
About three hours later, SpaceX is eyeing its next rocket launch on the other side of the country.
Another Falcon 9 rocket is due to get off the ground at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California along the Pacific Coast, with a 58-minute window opening at 2:18 p.m. ET, according to a launch alert.
Its mission? Deploy a whopping 130 payloads to Earth orbit for paying customers, including both commercial and civil entities, SpaceX said. Known as Transporter-18, the venture is the latest in a series of rideshare missions SpaceX operates for paying customers looking for a reliable rocket to get things like small satellites and orbital vehicles to space.
The Falcon 9's cargo in this case includes "cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads, and two spacecraft with reentry vehicles and four orbital transfer vehicles carrying 41 of those payloads to be deployed at a later time," according to SpaceX.
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy to soar over Florida
In the final mission of the day, SpaceX will shift its focus all the way back to the East Coast.
While the earlier Florida launch will take place at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, this one is set for NASA's nearby Kennedy Space Center along the Atlantic Coast.
And while the Crew-13 mission made use of the Falcon 9, this mission will rely on the rocket's much more powerful Falcon Heavy cousin, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX boasts that the Falcon Heavy can lift the equivalent of a Boeing 737 jetliner – complete with passengers, luggage and fuel – to orbit. That's because the rocket is composed of not one, but three reusable core boosters from the Falcon 9 – each powered by nine engines in the company's Merlin family.
The Falcon Heavy is due for liftoff at 11:53 p.m. ET.
The payload itself, though, is secretive. SpaceX was contracted to deploy a classified national-security payload designed, built and operated by the National Reconnaissance Office for a mission known as NROL-97.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 3 rocket launches, 13 hours. SpaceX eyes busy day across US
