Update July 13, 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 UTC): SpaceX pushed back the T-0 liftoff time.
SpaceX will perform the 600th reuse of one of its Falcon rocket boosters when it launches the Starlink 10-45 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Tuesday morning.
The predawn flight will add another 29 broadband internet satellites to SpaceX’s low Earth orbit constellation. The company has more than 10,7000 spacecraft in low Earth orbit.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 is scheduled for 5:10 a.m. EDT (0910 UTC). The rocket will fly on a north-easterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 90 percent chance for favorable weather at the opening of the window, which improves to 95 percent as time goes on. Meteorologists are watching out the slight possibility of the rocket flying through thick clouds, which could generate lightning.
“Some lingering thick clouds left over by the evening convection may be present at the beginning of the launch window but should gradually dissipate through the window,” launch weather officers wrote. “As a result, we have raised the POV slightly at the beginning of tonight’s launch window, but overall good weather is expected.”
SpaceX will launch the Starlink 10-45 mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1080. This will be its 28th flight following the launches of two crew flights for Axiom Space, the European Space Agency’s Euclid observatory, and Northrop Grumman’s NG-21.
Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1080 will target a landing on the droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. If successful, this will be the 161st landing on this vessel and the 638th booster landing for the company to date.
