2.11.2024

SpaceX, NASA targeting Sunday-Monday rocket launch doubleheader from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX is targeting a Sunday-Monday rocket launch doubleheader from Florida's Space Coast, with plans to lift Starlink satellites and International Space Station supplies up into low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX's 230-foot-tall, two-stage Falcon 9 rockets will power both missions.

Sunday's Starlink launch window lasts from 4:57-9:28 p.m. EST at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows. No target liftoff time has been announced yet.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 7.11.2024

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SpaceX aces Starlink 6-77 mission launch from Cape Canaveral during 3rd launch attempt

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 6-77 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein

Update Nov. 6, 2:56 p.m. EST: SpaceX pushed the planned T-0 liftoff time to the end of the launch window.

Update Nov. 6, 7:17 p.m. EST: SpaceX scrubbed the mission more than 30 minutes prior to liftoff.

Update Nov. 7, 2:43 p.m. EST: SpaceX pushed the launch forward by several minutes.

Update Nov. 7, 3:54 p.m. EST: SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 rocket and landed the first stage booster on its droneship.

SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-77 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after scrubbing the launch twice over the past week. The Falcon 9 rocket thundered off the launch pad carrying another 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit.

Liftoff from pad 40 happened on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 3:19 p.m. EST (2019 UTC).

Roughly 30 minutes before the planned liftoff on Wednesday, SpaceX waived off its launch attempt without stating a reason. The company simply said that they were “standing down” and instead “targeting Thursday” for the next launch attempt.

A helium-related ground system issue forced a scrub of the Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, with just two minutes and 36 seconds left on the countdown clock. The launch was rescheduled for Tuesday after Monday’s launch of the CRS-31 space station resupply mission, but was then delayed another day without explanation from SpaceX.

Weather hasn’t played a favorable role in mission planning either. For much of the week, weather conditions in the booster recovery zone weren’t ideal for recovering the first stage of the rocket. Liftoff conditions on Wednesday were forecast by the 45th Weather Squadron to have just a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions at liftoff.

Coming into Thursday’s launch opportunity, conditions are far better. Launch weather officers forecast a 90 percent chance of good launch conditions and a low chance of poor booster recovery weather.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1085 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a third time. It previously supported the Crew-9 astronaut mission to the International Space Station and Starlink 10-5.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the booster landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions stationed in the Atlantic, west of the Bahamas. This marked the 96th booster landing for JRTI and the 362nd booster landing to date.

Quelle: SN