SpaceX plans to launch 24 of its Starlink web satellites from Florida early this morning (Nov. 14) on the second half of a spaceflight doubleheader.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the 24 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to raise off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral House Power Station in the present day throughout a four-hour window that opens at 5:33 a.m. EST (0933 GMT). That is simply 5 hours after one other Falcon 9 launched 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg House Power Base in California.
SpaceX will webcast the liftoff dwell by way of X, starting about 5 minutes earlier than launch.
If all goes in line with plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff in the present day, touchdown on the SpaceX droneship “Simply Learn the Directions,” which will probably be stationed within the Atlantic Ocean.
Will probably be the 18th launch and touchdown for this specific booster, in line with a SpaceX mission description. 9 of its earlier 17 flights have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, will haul the 20 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), deploying them there about 65 minutes after liftoff.
The massive and ever-growing Starlink megaconstellation, which at present consists of greater than 6,560 energetic satellites, retains SpaceX very busy as of late.
Elon Musk’s firm has launched greater than 100 Falcon 9 missions in 2024, about two-thirds of them devoted to constructing out the enormous broadband community in LEO.
