SpaceX is planning to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in the early hours Saturday as the company continues to expand its network of more than 9,000 satellites for the Starlink internet service.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled during a four-hour launch window that opens at 1:59 a.m. EST (0659 UTC). It will be the ninth of as many as 11 Starlink missions planned this month and the 109th Starlink delivery run for the Falcon 9 rocket this year.
Near-perfect conditions are expected, with the 45th Weather Squadron forecasting a less than five-percent chance of a weather rule violation.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting an hour prior to launch.
After climbing away from pad 40, the Falcon 9 will pitch and roll on to a south-easterly trajectory to place its cargo of 29 Starlink V2 satellites into an orbit inclined at 43 degrees to the Equator.
SpaceX is flying B1090, a relatively new first stage booster making its ninth flight. After separating from the Falcon 9 second stage at an altitude of about 40 miles (65km), it will continue to arc higher over the Atlantic crossing the Karman line —considered to be the boundary of space — before plunging back to Earth and landing on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’.
The second stage will fire for about six minutes to place the Starlink satellites stacked atop the rocket into a parking orbit. After coasting for about 45 minutes, the second stage will circularize the orbit with a one-second burn of its Merlin Vacuum engine.
Separation of the satellites into a 170×162 mile (274×261 km) orbit will occur an hour and five minutes into flight.
Another 28 satellites are scheduled to launch from the West Coast Sunday morning.