On the 2 primary coasts of the US, SpaceX is preparing to launch quite a few low Earth orbit communications satellites for 3 different networks, with each launches scheduled to occur just over eight hours apart on the identical day.
The primary launch, Starlink Group 6-3, is scheduled to fly on Friday, May 19 at 12:41 AM EDT (04:41 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. An on-time launch can be just below five days after the last flight from the identical pad.
This may break the pad’s turnaround time between launches that was set between the Amazonas Nexus and Starlink 5-4 launches earlier this yr. The turnaround time then was five days, three hours, and 38 minutes, and if Starlink 6-3 launches any time throughout the Friday morning window, it should break this record.
The launch periods available for Starlink 6-3 span from 12:00 to 4:20 AM EDT (04:00 to 08:20 UTC) on Friday and 11:35 PM EDT Friday night to three:55 AM EDT (03:35 to 07:55 UTC) Saturday morning, with multiple launch opportunities inside these periods.
The available T0 times for Friday morning are as follows: 12:41 AM EDT (04:41 UTC), 1:31 AM EDT (05:31 UTC), 2:19 AM EDT (06:19 UTC), and three:09 AM EDT (07:09 UTC). An on-time launch would set the brand new SLC-40 turnaround record at 4 days, 23 hours, and 38 minutes.
If certainly one of the opposite times is used, the brand new turnaround record can be five days, zero hours, 28 minutes, five days, one hour, and 16 minutes, and five days, two hours, and 6 minutes, respectively. Fast turnarounds between launches from the identical pad are vital to maintaining SpaceX’s current launch cadence.
Twenty-two Starlink v2 Mini satellites will probably be launched on a southeast trajectory inclined 43 degrees to the equator. They will probably be inserted into an initial orbit of 344 km by 353 km. The satellites will probably be boosted to their operational 530 km circular orbits in the approaching weeks and months using their onboard argon ion thrusters.
![](https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Starlink-v2-mini-stack.jpg)
View of a stack of 21 Starlink v2 Mini satellites before being enclosed of their fairing ahead of a previous launch. (Credit: SpaceX)
Starlink 6-3 will use B1076 on its fifth flight, which can mark the thirtieth Falcon 9 and thirty second orbital launch for SpaceX in 2023. The booster is scheduled to land on the drone ship positioned 636 km downrange within the Atlantic. This core has previously flown the CRS-26, OneWeb #16, Starlink 6-1, and Intelsat 40e/TEMPO missions.
This same booster can also be scheduled to be converted to a Falcon Heavy side booster to be used on the Echostar 24 (Jupiter 3) mission set for no sooner than this coming August. Falcon 9 boosters may be converted into Falcon Heavy side boosters, and the reverse can also be true.
Eight hours after the scheduled Starlink 6-3 launch time, one other Falcon 9 is ready to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The available windows for this flight will probably be from 6:04 to 7:12 AM PDT (13:04 to 14:12 UTC) on Friday and 6:00 to 7:07 AM PDT (13:00 to 14:07 UTC) on Saturday.
B1063 will probably be making its eleventh flight, the thirty first Falcon 9 flight of this yr, and SpaceX’s thirty third flight of 2023, with liftoff scheduled for six:19 AM PDT (13:19 UTC). The flight — scheduled to land on the drone ship stationed within the Pacific Ocean — will fly a polar trajectory to the south, carrying five Iridium NEXT and 16 OneWeb satellites on board.
The five Iridium NEXT satellites will act as replacements for a few of the satellites SpaceX launched for the corporate between 2017 and 2019. The constellation consists of 66 operational satellites, nine on-orbit spares, and 6 ground spares.
![](https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_5129.png)
The OneWeb second generation demonstrator “JoeySat” developed with assistance from ESA and the UK Space Agency. (Credit: ESA)
Though OneWeb’s initial operational constellation of 618 satellites is now in orbit, 16 satellites will probably be flown on this mission. 15 of those satellites, of the identical type because the operational satellites, will grow to be on-orbit spares, while certainly one of the satellites is a second-generation demonstrator spacecraft, often called “JoeySat.”
The Iridium/OneWeb launch will probably be the second flight for the brand new, shortened second-stage engine nozzle. The shorter nozzle, designed to cut back costs and increase launch cadence, made its debut on the Transporter-7 launch in April. The shortened nozzle barely reduces performance, so it should only be used on missions that don’t need Falcon 9’s full performance capability.
For this flight, the entire payload mass is 6,600 kg, versus the 17,600 kg for the Starlink 6-3 launch. The Iridium Next satellites will probably be placed in an initial 615 km circular orbit inclined 86.4 degrees to the Equator, while the OneWeb satellites use a 1,200 km circular orbit inclined 87.9 degrees to the Equator.
The Iridium satellites will probably be moved as much as 625 km for checkouts, and certainly one of them will move to its operational orbit at 760 km altitude. The opposite 4 satellites will probably be placed into different orbital planes at 625 km.
The weather is a watch item for the Starlink 6-3 launch. The forty fifth Weather Squadron’s latest forecast shows a 60 percent likelihood of launch criteria violation on account of weather initially of the available window, decreasing to a 40 percent likelihood of violation at the tip of the window.
The primary concerns for the May 19 window are the anvil, debris, and cumulus cloud rules, while the forecast looks higher for the backup window 24 hours later.
For a 24-hour delay, there may be a 40 percent likelihood of violation initially of the window and a 30 percent likelihood at the tip of the window. The remaining concerns for the backup window are the anvil and cumulus cloud rules.
![](https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_5128.png)
Starlink 6-3 launch weather forecast. (Credit: USSF)
There is no such thing as a official forecast out yet for the Iridium NEXT/OneWeb launch out of Vandenberg, but an area forecast shows the standard fog cover in the realm for the morning hours. Fog shouldn’t be typically a constraint to launch for the Falcon 9.
The pair of launches is scheduled to be followed by the Axiom-2 crewed spaceflight from Launch Complex 39A on the Kennedy Space Center the next week as SpaceX attempts to fly as much as 100 orbital missions this yr.