15.09.2023

Next SpaceX launch set for Thursday as Hurricane Lee churns far off Florida coastline

Update: (Thursday, Sept. 14) Liftoff of the Starlink 6-16 mission is targeted for 12:03 a.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 15. But SpaceX said in a post on X, "Teams are keeping an eye on Hurricane Lee in the Atlantic Ocean, which could impact conditions for recovery operations." If needed, there is one additional launch opportunity at 12:30 a.m. EDT. Follow live Space Team coverage beginning 90 minutes before liftoff.

SpaceX is targeting its next Starlink internet satellite launch for Thursday night from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Though SpaceX hadn't yet confirmed the mission, navigational warnings suggest that liftoff of the Starlink 6-16 mission is slated for sometime during a nearly five-hour launch window, which extends from 8:30 p.m. to 1:02 a.m. EDT Friday.

Packed in Falcon 9's payload fairing will be dozens of Starlink internet satellites slated to fly along a southeastern trajectory. About eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster is set to target a drone ship landing out at sea.

Next SpaceX launch late Thursday might have iffy weather:

A weather report from the Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron pegs conditions at 65% "go" for launch. Recovery conditions for the booster landing aboard the drone ship at sea were listed as "moderate risk."

"Isolated to scattered showers and storms will again concentrate across interior Florida in the afternoon. With an upper-level push, the trough will begin to sink toward the southeast Thursday as front itself noses into North Florida Thursday evening," the squadron's forecast said.

For Thursday, the National Weather Service forecast calls for a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11 p.m. around the spaceport. Partly cloudy conditions should otherwise prevail, with a low around 75 and north-northeast wind around 5 mph.

As SpaceX teams prepare for another launch from the Cape, Hurricane Lee continues churning far off Florida's coastline as a sprawling Category 3 hurricane.

Breaking waves generated by Lee could reach heights of 7 feet Thursday along the Brevard County shoreline, NWS meteorologists warned.

Be sure to check floridatoday.com/space for the latest schedule updates and launch weather forecast, which may include possible impacts from Hurricane Lee.

SpaceX's Starlink constellation operates about 340 miles above Earth and provides nearly global internet service to hard-to-reach destinations and customers on every continent.

To date, the company has sent more than 5,000 of the flat-packed satellites to orbit since first beginning dedicated missions in 2019.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 16.09.2023

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STARLINK MISSION Launch

On Friday, September 15 at 11:38 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the fifth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-6, SES O3b mPOWER, and now three Starlink missions.

Quelle: SpaceX