SpaceX is set to launch its 90th Falcon 9 rocket of the year with a mid-morning flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday. It comes hours before the company’s first quarterly earnings call as a publicly traded company.
The Starlink 17-53 mission will add another 24 broadband internet satellites to the company’s low Earth orbit constellation consisting of more than 10,800 satellites.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East is scheduled for 10:05 a.m. PDT (1:05 p.m. EDT / 1705 UTC). The rocket will fly on a south-southwesterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.
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 B1063. This will be its 34th flight after launching missions for NASA, ESA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the Space Development Agency, among others.
Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1063 will target a landing on the droneship, Of Course I Still Love You, positioned in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 215th landing on this vessel and the 644th booster landing to date for SpaceX.
SpaceX will host its first earnings call in company history about 30 minutes after the markets close at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 UTC). The financial update comes as the company is preparing for what may be the first orbital launch of its Starship rocket with the Flight 14 mission on a yet-to-be-announced launch date.
The company is also preparing for marquee missions for NASA with the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope set to fly on a Falcon Heavy rocket no earlier than August 30 and the Crew-13 mission flying on a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than September 12.
