The mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base was the seventh flight for the NRO in 2024 and included 20 Starlink satellites. Liftoff from pad 4 East occurred at 12:10 a.m. PST (3:10 a.m. EST, 0810 UTC).
The mission is set to be the first of a pair of Falcon 9 launches in the span of just a few hours. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for no earlier than 12:00 a.m. EST (0500 UTC) on Nov. 30.
The launch of the European Commission’s Sentinel-1C satellite is now targeting no earlier than Wednesday, Dec. 4, from the European Spaceport in French Guiana. The next update on launch preparations are set to be published on Friday, Nov. 29.
The mission is likely the last for SpaceX before the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Liftoff of the Starlink 6-76 mission from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center happened at 11:41 p.m. EST (0441 UTC on Nov. 27).
SpaceX’s senior director of satellite engineering said following regulatory approval, the DTC constellation will allow texting at the onset and data usage beginning in 2025. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-1 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 5:02 a.m. EST (1002 UTC).
The Saturday night launch included another batch of 20 Starlink satellites that include Direct to Cell capabilities. The Starlink 9-13 mission lifted off from pad 4E at 9:25 p.m. PST (12:25 a.m. EST, 0525 UTC).
The Starlink 6-66 mission comes near the end of a week during which SpaceX launched three Falcon 9 rockets in less than 20 hours and a Starship rocket. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is set for 11:07 a.m. EST (1607 UTC).
With President-elect Donald Trump and newly-minted efficiency czar Elon Musk looking on, SpaceX launched the world’s most powerful rocket on its sixth test flight Tuesday, an up-and-down trip to space by a gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship to evaluate a variety of safety and performance upgrades.
The mission is likely to be the fourth and final Starship flight before the end of 2024. Liftoff from Pad 1 at Starbase at Boca Chica Beach, Texas, is set for 4 p.m. CST (5 p.m. EST, 2200 UTC).