The booster will first launch the Starlink 10-5 mission no earlier than the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 20. The static fire test happened Monday evening shortly after 7 p.m. EDT (2300 UTC).
The Commercial Resupply Services-30 (CRS-30) mission featured the first launch of a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS from pad 40 since the final first-generation SpaceX cargo ship flew in March 2020.
The slide system differs notably from the slide wire basket system used over at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA officials said pad 40 will be ready for astronaut launches this year.
The mission is the first of the year for NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9 rocket is lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:33 a.m. EST (0633 UTC) on Feb. 8.
SpaceX launched 22 of its Starlink V2 Mini satellites to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 8:39 p.m. EDT (0039 UTC on Oct. 18).