SpaceX plans to launch 24 more of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast on Monday (Nov. 11).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday during a four-hour window that opens at 4:02 p.m. EST (2102 GMT). The launch had originally been planned for Sunday evening, but was delayed due to “unfavorable recovery weather conditions,” according to SpaceX.
SpaceX will webcast the launch live via X, beginning about five minutes before liftoff.
If all goes to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth for a vertical touchdown about eight minutes after liftoff on the droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the 12th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Five of its previous 11 flights were Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the 24 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), deploying them there about 65 minutes after liftoff.
Monday’s launch will follow on the heels of another Starlink mission, which lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base early on Saturday morning (Nov. 9).
SpaceX has now launched 106 Falcon 9 missions in 2024. Nearly 70% of them have been dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of more than 6,500 active spacecraft.
Source: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-launch-group-6-69
