SpaceX plans to launch a thriller mission from Florida’s Area Coast this night (Dec. 13).
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to elevate off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station in the present day at 8:04 p.m. EDT (0104 GMT on Dec. 14), kicking off a mission that SpaceX calls RRT-1.
The corporate will livestream the motion reside by way of its X account, beginning about 10 minutes earlier than launch.
Many area observers suppose tonight’s launch is sending a complicated GPS satellite tv for pc to orbit — particularly, GPS 3-10, one other member of the venerable navigation community’s third era of spacecraft. SpaceX holds a contract to launch three of those satellites for the U.S. navy and has already despatched one among them aloft, in January 2023.
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However SpaceX’s mission description does not say something about GPS satellites; it does not even clarify what RRT-1 stands for, if that identify is certainly an acronym. And the fairing that surrounds and protects the RRT-1 payload apparently options no paintings or logos, a departure from the norm that provides to the intrigue.
If all goes in keeping with plan tonight, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come again to Earth about 8.5 minutes after launch, touching down on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” within the Atlantic Ocean. It will likely be the fourth liftoff and touchdown for this specific booster, in keeping with SpaceX’s mission description.
The rocket’s higher stage, in the meantime, will deploy the RRT-1 payload, no matter it might be, into orbit about 90 minutes after launch.
