SpaceX to launch 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is getting ready to launch a batch of 28 of its Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit minutes earlier than dawn on Thursday morning.

It’s concentrating on the liftoff of its Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 10-20 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:47 a.m. EDT (1047 UTC). This would be the 69th orbital launch from Florida to date this 12 months.

Spaceflight Now could have reside protection starting about an hour previous to liftoff.



The forty fifth Weather Squadron forecast a 90 % likelihood of favorable climate situations for liftoff in the course of the four-hour launch window. Meteorologists mentioned on Wednesday that they solely had slight considerations with interference from “any sneaky cumulus that pushes onshore.”

“Overnight/early morning winds are expected to maintain a more southwesterly flow for both primary and backup launch windows, which should help limit any cumulus clouds from tracking onshore from activity that develops over the Atlantic,” launch climate officers wrote.

SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail quantity B1085 to launch this mission on its tenth flight. Its earlier missions included NASA’s Crew-9, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 and Fram2.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1085 will goal a touchdown on the droneship ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ If profitable, this would be the 132nd touchdown on this vessel.