CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — It looks like the weather will be good as SpaceX is getting ready for another Starlink launch Tuesday evening.
What You Need To Know
- More than 20 Starlink satellites are scheduled to be sent into low-Earth orbit
- The launch window opens at 6:17 p.m. ET.
A Falcon 9 rocket will send up Starlink 6-53 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated SpaceX.
The launch window will open at 6:17 p.m. ET and closes at 9:25 p.m. ET.
Ahead of the launch, the 45th Weather Squadron gave a 95% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only concern being the cumulus cloud rule.
If the launch is scrubbed, the next attempt will be Wednesday at 5:50 p.m. ET.
Going up
This will be the ninth mission for the Falcon 9's first-stage booster B1078. It has had eight successful missions before this launch:
- Crew-6
- SES O3b mPOWER
- USSF-124 mission
- Starlink 6-4
- Starlink 6-8
- Starlink 6-16
- Starlink 6-31
- Starlink 6-46
After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket should land on the droneship Just Read the Instructions that will be in the Atlantic Ocean.
About the mission
The 23 satellites from the Starlink company, owned by SpaceX, will be heading to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands already there.
Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been documenting Starlink satellites.
Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:
- 5,851 are in orbit
- 5,214 are in operational orbit
-
