Editor’s note: SpaceX is now targeting 5:07 PM EDT (2107 GMT) for the launch of its Starlink 10-2 satellite mission.
SpaceX plans to launch 22 more of its Starlink broadband satellites into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast on Friday (June 14).
The Starlink satellites will launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on a Falcon 9 rocket during a three-hour window at 5:07 pm EDT (2107 GMT). SpaceX will stream the action live through its account on X, starting five minutes before kickoff. The company has until 8:19 PM EDT (0019 GMT) to begin this task.
SpaceX had planned to launch on Wednesday (June 12) and then on Thursday (June 13), but bad weather delayed the attempt by another 24 hours. The company also has a backup release day on Saturday (June 15) if needed.
Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth 8.5 minutes after launch, and if all goes according to plan, the drone will land on board and read instructions over the Atlantic Ocean.
Step one is the 16th launch and landing for this particular booster SpaceX mission description. Ten of its 15 flights to date are Starlink missions. The remaining five missions are commercial flights for the SES-22 satellite, IceSpace’s private Hakuto-R mission 1 moon lander, the Amazonas-6 communications satellite, the CRS-27 cargo mission for NASA, and the Bandwagon-1 multi-payload rideshare flight for SpaceX. said.
Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue to carry 22 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, launching them 53 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has launched 60 orbital missions so far in 2024, an average of one liftoff every 2.7 days.
Forty-three of these launchers were dedicated to building the Starlink megaconstellation, which currently exists Almost 6,100 operational spacecraft.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on June 13 at 8:30 p.m. ET, with a new target publication date of June 14.
