SpaceX is on the cusp of having more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit simultaneously for the first time. The milestone comes less than seven years after launching its first batch of satellites in May 2019.
Coincidently, the Monday night launch also coincides with the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard’s launch of the first liquid-propelled rocket, which was fueled by gasoline. A century later, SpaceX’s Monday night launch of a Falcon 9 rocket will be the 615th flight of this kerosene-fueled rocket.
Liftoff of the mission that will put SpaceX over the 10,000-satellite threshold, dubbed Starlink Group 17-24, is scheduled for 8:39:30 p.m. PDT (11:39:30 p.m. EDT / 0339:30 UTC), near the opening of the four-hour window.
The Falcon 9 rocket will fly on a southerly trajectory upon leaving Space Launch Complex 4 East. This will be the 17th orbital launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California so far this year.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
SpaceX will launch the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number of 1088. This will be its 14th flight, following the launches of NASA’s SPHEREx, Transporter-12, and two missions for the National Reconnaissance Office.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1088 will target a landing on the drone ship, ‘Of Course I Still Love,’ positioned in the Pacific Ocean. This will be the 184th landing on this vessel and the 586th booster landing for SpaceX to date.
