Another day, another Starlink launch.
SpaceX is set to launch yet another batch of its Starlink satellites to orbit this evening (May 31). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the broadband craft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today, during a 26-minute window that opens at 10:11 p.m. EDT (0211 GMT on June 1).
SpaceX will livestream the launch via its X account; it will begin about five minutes before the window opens.
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth about 8 minutes after launch, landing on the droneship called “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the 14th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Seven of its 13 flights to date have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, where they will be deployed about 65 minutes after liftoff.
Tonight’s launch will mark SpaceX’s 57th orbital mission of the year already, and its 40th Starlink-centric liftoff of 2024. To date, the company has launched more than 6,500 Starlink satellites to LEO, and about 6,000 of them are currently operational.
The Starlink launch is part of a very busy stretch in spaceflight. Rocket Lab plans to launch a NASA climate cubesat tonight, for example, and Boeing’s Starliner capsule is scheduled to lift off with astronauts aboard for the first time ever tomorrow afternoon (June 1). And, tomorrow evening, China’s Chang’e 6 robotic sample-return mission is expected to touch down on the moon’s far side.
Source: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-launch-group-6-64
