SpaceX is set to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on a return to flight mission following a brief stand down period lasting less than a week.
The Starlink 17-33 mission will add 25 Starlink satellites to the company’s megaconstellation in low Earth orbit. There a more than 9,600 satellites currently in orbit, according to stats maintained by astronomer and expert orbital tracker, Jonathan McDowell.
Liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 7 at 9:21 a.m. PST (12:21 p.m. EST / 1721 UTC). The rocket will fly on a south-southwesterly trajectory.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
SpaceX will launch the Starlink 17-33 mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number 1088. This will be its 13th flight following the launches of missions, like NASA’s SPHEREx, Transporter-12 and two batches of satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office’s proliferated architecture satellite constellation.
Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1088 will target a landing on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 176th landing on this vessel and the 568th booster landing for SpaceX to date.
Return to flight
SpaceX is returning to its more typical pace of launch after a rare quiet period and some delayed missions.
Originally, following the launch of the Starlink 17-32 mission from VSFB on Monday, Feb. 2, the company was set to fly the Starlink 6-103 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
However, later on Monday, SpaceX announced an in-flight anomaly after payload deployment.
“During today’s launch, the second stage experienced an off-nominal condition during preparation for the deorbit burn,” SpaceX said in a statement on Feb. 2. “The vehicle then performed as designed to successfully passivate the stage. The first two MVac burns were nominal and safely deployed all 25 Starlink satellites to their intended orbit.”
While NASA conducted a fueling test of its Space Launch System rocket, SpaceX rolled the Starlink satellites for the Starlink 6-103 mission back from pad 40 to its Hangar X facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Hours later, it rolled the booster, tail number 1101, out to the pad to prepare for the forthcoming launch of Crew-12 set for next week.
On Friday evening, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the closure of the SpaceX-led mishap investigation, allowing SpaceX to resume FAA-licensed flights.
“The FAA oversaw and accepted the findings of the SpaceX-led investigation. The final mishap report cites the probable root cause was the Falcon 9 stage 2 engine’s failure to ignite prior to the deorbit burn,” the FAA said in a statement. “SpaceX identified technical and organizational preventative measures to avoid a reoccurrence of the event. The Falcon 9 vehicle is authorized to return to flight.”
