SpaceX was racing to get a Falcon 9 rocket able to fly from Cape Canaveral Tuesday evening as launch preparations fell behind schedule. Currently liftoff with a batch of 23 Starlink satellites is planned for 1:47 a.m. EST (0647 UTC) Wednesday morning.
As of 9:30 p.m. EST the rocket might be seen lying horizontal at launch pad 40, yet to be lifted up right. The previous mission from pad 40 lifted off just 4 days earlier so if the present launch time sticks this is able to be the seventh fastest turnaround attempt for the launch facility.
The Starlink 6-29 mission was originally targeted for 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC) on Tuesday night but SpaceX pushed back the launch to 1:47 a.m. EST (0647 UTC). There are three more opportunities Wednesday morning, the last one coming at 2:59 a.m. EST (0759 UTC).
U.S. Space Force meteorologists on the forty fifth Weather squadron said Monday weather conditions could be 90-percent favorable on the time of the primary opportunity with possibilities dropping barely to 75-percent at the top of the launch window.
After lifting off from Cape Canaveral, the Falcon 9 will set off on a south-easterly trajectory targeting an orbit inclined 43 degrees to the Equator. After burning its nine Merlin 1D engines for nearly two and a half minutes, the primary stage will separate from the second stage and proceed downrange to land on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ within the Atlantic Ocean, about 424 miles (682 km) from the launch site.
![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20230226starlinkv2mini-1-678x452.jpg)
Meanwhile, high above, the one vacuum Merlin engine of the second stage will fire for about six-minutes to succeed in a parking orbit. After coasting for about 45 minutes, the second-stage engine will re-ignite for a two-second burn to refine the orbit. Deployment of the 23 V2 Mini Starlink satellites will follow at about one hour and five minutes after launch.
It’s going to be SpaceX’s 87th orbital launch of the 12 months and the 276th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket up to now.
Spaceflight Now’s live coverage of the launch will get underway about an hour before liftoff. You can even watch 24-7 views of launch pads on the Cape in our Launch Pad Live stream.