SpaceX plans to launch one other batch of its Starlink web satellites from California this morning (Oct. 29).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft, together with 13 with direct-to-cell (DTC) functionality, is scheduled to raise off from Vandenberg Area Drive Base as we speak, throughout an almost hour-long window that opens at 7:44 a.m. EDT (1144 GMT; 4:44 a.m. native California time).
SpaceX will stream the launch stay by way of X, starting about 5 minutes earlier than liftoff.
If all goes in keeping with plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come again to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff. It can contact down on the drone ship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You,” which will likely be stationed within the Pacific Ocean.
It will likely be the 14th launch and touchdown for this explicit booster and its eleventh Starlink mission general, in keeping with a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage will haul the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), the place they will be deployed about an hour after liftoff.
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SpaceX has already launched greater than 100 Falcon 9 missions in 2024, about two-thirds of them dedicated to constructing out the Starlink megaconstellation.
The corporate at present operates greater than 6,400 Starlink spacecraft in LEO, in keeping with astrophysicist and satellite tv for pc tracker Jonathan McDowell. About 250 of them are DTC satellites.
