12.06.2024
SpaceX launch tonight: Everything to know about the Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral
It's supposed to be another SpaceX launch day — but the Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 95% chance of cloudy, rainy weather disrupting at least a portion of the launch window.
Here's what we know: SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket launch window at 5:20 p.m. EDT on the Starlink 10-2 mission from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
However, the 45th Weather Squadron warns that anvil clouds, cumulus clouds and surface electric fields could postpone the launch attempt as "very wet and unsettled weather conditions" dominate the Cape and Florida at large.
Backup launch opportunities are available until 9 p.m., SpaceX announced. No Central Florida sonic booms are expected if the launch does occur. After soaring skyward along a northeasterly trajectory, the rocket's first-stage booster will target landing aboard a SpaceX drone ship out at sea 8½ minutes after liftoff.
Quelle: Florida Today
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Update: 15.06.2024
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SpaceX aborts Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral at moment of ignition
A planned SpaceX rocket launch from Cape Canaveral was aborted at the moment of ignition Friday evening for unknown reasons.
The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink internet satellites to low-Earth orbit was abruptly canceled around 5:07 p.m. at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A post from SpaceX on X, formerly known as Twitter, did not mention a reason for the cancellation and stated the launch would be rescheduled to an unspecified date.
The company had livestreamed the launch on its X account. A SpaceX commentator is heard saying “ignition” at the moment the on-screen timer reaches T-minus zero seconds. After three further seconds elapsed on the timer, the commentator says “abort, we have an abort.”
The abortion of a launch at such a late stage is considered rare.
“It’s been some time since we’ve had a mid-ignition abort of a Falcon 9 rocket,” said Will Robinson-Smith, a reporter for space news site Spaceflight Now as he live streamed coverage of the planned launch on YouTube.
According to Spaceflight Now, the last time a Falcon 9 launch was aborted this late was October 2020. The site also says this particular Falcon 9 booster rocket had flown 15 previous times and that it would have been SpaceX’s 61st Falcon 9 launch of 2024.
The launch had been postponed twice over the course of the previous two days.
The Starlink initiative is meant to create a network of satellites that can provide high-speed Internet access anywhere on Earth.
SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites from California
It was the company's first liftoff in 10 days.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 20 Starlink satellites from California on June 18, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink broadband satellites from California on Tuesday night (June 18), ending a 10-day spaceflight drought for the company.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 20 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday at 11:40 p.m. EDT (8:40 p.m. local California time; 0040 GMT on June 19).
About 8.5 minutes later, the Falcon 9's first stage touched down on the SpaceXdroneship Of Course I Still Love You, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a ship at sea shortly after launching 20 Starlink satellites from California on June 18, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)
It was the fifth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the 20 satellites toward low Earth orbit, where they're scheduled to be deployed about an hour after liftoff. The new batch will join more than 6,000 operational satellites in the Starlink megaconstellation.
Tuesday night's mission was the 61st orbital liftoff of the year for SpaceX but its first since June 8. That wouldn't qualify as a lull for any operator other than SpaceX, which is averaging one launch every 2.8 days so far in 2024.
The Starlink launch was supposed to be the second half of a spaceflight doubleheader for SpaceX on Tuesday. But the first leg, the launch of the Astra 1P telecom satellite for Luxembourg-based company SES, was called off due to high winds near the launch site, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Quelle: SC