SpaceX to launch predawn Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is kicking off the weekend with a pair of Falcon 9 launches. Both flights are scheduled to depart Florida’s Space Coast throughout the similar four-hour window of alternative.

The Starlink 6-85 mission is the second scheduled to fly and can depart from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX is focusing on liftoff at 1:21 a.m. EST (0621 UTC).

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



Given the obvious proximity of the 2 missions, the forty fifth Weather Squadron issued equivalent forecasts for each missions, citing a higher than 95 p.c likelihood for favorable climate at liftoff. After a couple of days of notable photo voltaic exercise, launch climate officers dropped the potential for photo voltaic impacts right down to a average danger on a low-moderate-high scale.

The Starlink 6-85 mission will launch with the Falcon 9 booster with the tail quantity B1078, which can fly for a twenty fourth time. Its earlier missions embrace Crew-6, USSF-124 and AST SpaceCell’s BlueBird 1-5.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1078 will carry out an autonomous touchdown on the drone ship, ‘Just Read the Instructions’, which is positioned within the Atlantic Ocean to the east of The Bahamas.