2.12.2023
SpaceX launch tonight: Everything to know about the Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral
t's launch day! But the weather forecast does not look encouraging, so stay tuned.
SpaceX is targeting a window from 11 p.m. beyond midnight to 3:31 a.m. EST Saturday to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, navigational warnings show.
The Falcon 9 will deploy a batch of Starlink internet satellites, which are packed inside the payload fairings atop the 230-foot rocket.
No local sonic booms are expected. After soaring skyward along a southeastern trajectory, the rocket's first-stage booster will target landing aboard a drone ship out at sea 8½ minutes after liftoff.
Check back for live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team launch coverage updates on this page, starting 90 minutes before the launch window opens. When SpaceX's live webcast hosted on X (formerly Twitter) becomes available about five minutes before liftoff, it will be posted at the top of this page.
Space Force predicts only 40% odds of 'go' weather
"High pressure has shifted from the eastern Gulf of Mexico into the western Atlantic. As a result, temperatures will rebound (Thursday) with veering southeasterly flow," the Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron launch forecast said.
"The weather scenario begins to change Friday as a mid-latitude low drags a cold front from the Mississippi River Valley towards the Deep South through the evening. Pre-frontal moisture will be on the rise locally, bringing increasing cloud cover and showers into the forecast for the initial launch window Friday night," the forecast said.
All told, the squadron predicts thick cloud layers and cumulous clouds will create a 60% chance of launch postponement. Further complicating matters: a low to moderate risk of upper-level wind shear.
If the launch gets scrubbed, the Starlink's mission's backup window lasts from 11 p.m. Saturday to 3:31 a.m. Sunday. The 45th Weather Squadron also pegs the odds of "go for launch" weather at only 40% for this backup window.
Quelle: Florida Today
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Update: 3.12.2023
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SpaceX Falcon 9 launches on Saturday night from Cape Canaveral amid cloudy forecast
"Falcon 9 is in startup."
"Go for launch."
" ... Five, four, three, two, one. Engines full power. And liftoff! Go Falcon. Go Starlink."
SpaceX launch personnel counted down the final minute before liftoff of Saturday night's Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which bucked the odds and streaked skyward amid a cloudy forecast and sporadic rainstorms across Brevard County.
Postponed from its initial Friday night launch window, the 11 p.m. EST launch deployed a payload of 23 Starlink internet-beaming satellites into low-Earth orbit.
The 230-foot rocket's first-stage booster descended for a fiery landing aboard the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas out on the Atlantic Ocean.
Thick cloud layers, cumulous clouds and upper-level wind shear threatened the Starlink 6-31 mission. The Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron had only pegged the odds of "go for launch" weather at 40% for both Friday and Saturday nights.
Saturday's launch extended this year's ongoing record of annual orbital launches from the Space Coast to 67 with four more weeks to go.
Looking ahead this week, an updated National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency navigational warning indicates Cape Canaveral's next rocket launch window will open late Wednesday night and extend 4½ hours into early Thursday morning.
That launch window opens at 11 p.m. Wednesday and extends until 3:31 p.m. EST Thursday, mirroring the hours of of recent SpaceX Starlink missions. However, SpaceX has yet to publicly announce its next launch attempt.
Quelle: Florida Today