A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks toward space after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center, as viewed from Space View Park in Titusville, Florida, on April 27, 2022. (Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
ORLANDO, Fla. (Tribune News Service) — SpaceX is set for an early Sunday morning liftoff of its latest Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A Falcon 9 carrying 22 of its internet satellites is targeting 4:36 a.m. to launch from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 with backup opportunities at 5:27, 6:17, 7:08 and 7:58 a.m. A second Sunday backup opens up in the evening with windows at 8:36, 9:27, 10:17 and 11:58 p.m.
Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron predicts a 90% chance for good conditions during the morning opportunities, and a 50% chance that improves to 90% for the Sunday evening opportunities.
The first-stage booster on this flight is making its record 16th liftoff with a targeted return landing downrange on SpaceX’s droneship Just Read the Instructions. It previously flew Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, Transporter-3, and 10 Starlink missions.
This marks SpaceX’s 46th orbital mission for 2023 from all three of its regular launch complexes: Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It also has flown its in-development Starship and Super Heavy once from its Boca Chica, Texas facility Starbase, but did not make it to orbit.
For just the Space Coast, it would be the 34th mission with all but two coming from SpaceX.
The company has a big slate of Starlink and other Falcon 9 launches through the end of the year, but has two marquee missions coming up from KSC in the next month with its next powerhouse Falcon Heavy launch targeting late July and its next crewed launch, the Crew-7 mission for NASA to the International Space Station, no earlier than Aug. 15.
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