Dwell protection: SpaceX to launch 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launched its penultimate deliberate flight in May, sending its Falcon 9 rocket flying from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday morning.

The Starlink 10-53 mission will add one other 29 broadband web satellites to the corporate’s low Earth orbit megaconstellation. The community consists of greater than 10,000 spacecraft.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 occurred at 8:57 a.m. EDT (1257 UTC). The rocket flew on a north-easterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.



The forty fifth Weather Squadron forecast an 80 % probability for favorable climate in the course of the launch window. Meteorologists are monitoring the likelihood for interference from cumulus and anvil clouds.

“The subtropical ridge axis will move south of the Spaceport by Friday, leading to an influx of tropical moisture,” launch climate officers wrote. “Westerly-to-southwesterly low-level winds will deliver prime circumstances for afternoon showers and thunderstorms alongside the east coast of Florida for a number of days, a few of which may develop within the morning hours.

“For both the primary and backup launch windows, isolated showers and thunderstorms could develop towards the end of the windows, with possibly lingering anvil clouds towards the beginning of the windows.”

SpaceX launched the mission utilizing the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail quantity B1085. This was its sixteenth flight following the launches of missions, like NASA’s Crew-9, Fram2, and Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1.

Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1085 landed on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This was the 152nd landing on this vessel and the 616th booster touchdown for SpaceX up to now.