SpaceX continues with a busy weekend because it prepares to launch one other batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station late Saturday night. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 is targeting 11:00 p.m. EST (0400 UTC).
If the corporate is in a position to overcome weather hurdles, the Starlink 6-31 mission might be its second launch in lower than 40 hours. U.S. Space Force meteorologists are calling for a 45-percent likelihood of acceptable conditions for launch with the potential of rocket-trigger lightning from thick cloud layers and cumulus clouds being the first concern. In addition they list a low to moderate risk of upper level wind shear posing a threat.
SpaceX pushed back this launch from Friday night. It didn’t provide a proof however the Falcon 9 hadn’t made an appearance on the launch pad as of Saturday morning
Spaceflight Now’s live coverage will begin an hour prior to liftoff at 10 p.m. EST (0000 UTC), barring a launch delay.
The primary-stage booster for this the launch, tail number B1078, is making its sixth flight after first launching the Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station on March 2, 2023. It also launched the O3b mPOWER 3 and 4 satellites in addition to three Starlink missions.
About eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, it’ll land on the droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” out within the Atlantic Ocean. In keeping with SpaceX, this might be the 251st landing of an orbital class rocket after the Korea 425 mission’s landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Landing Zone 4 claimed the excellence of landing number 250 on Friday.
The recovery vessel named “Doug” will retrieve the payload fairing halves after they splash down.
The 23 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink network might be deployed from the second stage of the Falcon 9 about one hour, five minutes into flight.
The launch from pad 40 isn’t the one SpaceX activity on the Space Coast. Starting Saturday morning, crews were busy rolling out a Falcon Heavy rocket from the hangar at Launch Complex 39A to the pad.
The operation paves the best way for a static fire test on Sunday in anticipation of the U.S.-52 mission launch scheduled for every week afterward Dec. 10. It should be the primary time the Falcon Heavy has been used to launch the U.S. military’s X-37B spaceplane. A launch window has not been publicly announced.