SpaceX is counting down to the launch of a batch of Starlink satellites on Tuesday, its first early-evening flight since the FAA lifted restrictions on commercial launches prompted by the government shutdown.
The Starlink 6-94 mission is scheduled to liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 7:12 p.m. EST (0012 UTC), carrying 29 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet service.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about one hour prior to launch.
At one point, this mission was slated to fly after 10 p.m. EST due to the daytime curfew on commercial launches imposed by the FAA as it struggled to maintain air traffic control during the recent government shutdown. Those restrictions, which did not affect government missions, were lifted Monday.
The launch times for the previous two Starlink missions on November 14/15 from the Florida spaceport were shifted until after 10 p.m. EST to accommodate the restrictions.
Meteorologists with the 45th Weather Squadron based at Cape Canaveral issued a forecast Monday predicting a 95-percent chance of acceptable conditions for launch.
Upon liftoff, the Falcon 9 will pitch onto a south-easterly trajectory. Falcon 9 booster B1085, making its 12th flight, will make a landing on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ which will be stationed in the Atlantic east of the Bahamas.
The 29 Starlink satellites are due to separate from the Falcon 9 second stage about one hour, five minutes after launch.