SpaceX set to launch this week's second Starlink mission from the Cape early Friday

SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station are set to launch another Falcon 9 Starlink mission early Friday, July 14.

Weather conditions should be mostly favorable for the company's second mission of the last seven days from Launch Complex 40. Liftoff is set to occur between 12:10 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. EDT.

The 230-foot rocket will fly on a southeasterly trajectory threading between Florida and the Bahamas, marking the 35th launch from the Space Coast this year. A few minutes later, the first-stage booster will target a landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. No local sonic booms are expected to wake anyone up with this one.

What's the weather look like?

Space Force forecasters project an 85% chance of "go" conditions for the early Friday liftoff.

A summer pattern of afternoon stormy weather is expected for the Space Coast through the remainder of the week, with the sea breeze helping to clear some of that activity into the evening and overnight hours.

"Associated storms (should) push further inland during the afternoon," forecasters said in a report on Wednesday. "Some of this convection may try to push eastwards back towards the coast in the evening, but the activity will dissipate as we head towards the launch window shortly after midnight."

Forecasters listed the main concern for a launch attempt early Friday as a "small risk of lingering cloud cover or blowoff from a storm off the coast."

Recovery conditions for the drone ship landing are also expected to be low risk.

If the mission should slip to the backup opportunity 24 hours later, the weather outlook remains mostly the same.

What's the payload?

Packed inside the rocket's protective nosecone fairing, Friday's Starlink 5-15 mission features another batch of Starlink satellites that deliver high-speed internet to more than 1.5 million subscribers around the globe.

To deliver reliable connectivity to every continent, the company anticipates needing tens of thousands of the flat-pack satellites that operate about 340 miles above Earth. Starlink service is available to a wide range of customers from residential to the military, cruise ships, and airlines.

By the end of this year, some mobile customers with cellular service provider T-Mobile could access Starlink services to send text messages with a plan called "Coverage Above & Beyond."

All told, SpaceX has sent nearly 5,000 of the satellites to orbit since first the first operational launches began in 2019.

Launch Friday, July 14:

Company / Agency: Internal SpaceX mission
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9
Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Launch Window: 12:10 a.m. to 1:41 a.m. EDT
Trajectory: Southeast
Weather: 85% "go"
Landing: A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 15.07.2023

SpaceX Starlink launch scrubs seconds before Friday liftoff; set for weekend

SpaceX's latest attempt at launching another batch of Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was scrubbed just seconds before liftoff early Friday.

Originally set to fly during an hour-and-a-half long window that opened at 12:10 a.m. EDT, the mission to send 54 of the flat-pack satellites to low-Earth orbit was aborted forty seconds before liftoff from Launch Complex 40. No reason for the scrub was immediately provided by SpaceX.

SpaceX's next opportunity to launch the 230-foot rocket on a southeasterly trajectory is early Saturday, July 15, at 12:15 a.m. EDT.

If it launches on time, the Space Coast's 35th mission of the year will thread between Florida and the Bahamas. A few minutes after liftoff, the first-stage booster will target a landing on the Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. No local sonic booms are expected to wake anyone up with this one.