SpaceX continues to line them up and clear them out as it targets an early afternoon launch from the Kennedy Space Center today.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 more of the company’s Starlink Internet satellites is targeting a 2:10 p.m. liftoff, after passing up initial opportunities, from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A with backup options through the end of the launch window from four hours to 2 hours. :42h and more on Thursday from 10:16am
Space Launch Delta 45 Weather Squadron is forecasting a 90% chance of good conditions today and Thursday.
This is the third launch of the first stage booster which has previously flown on the Crew-8 human spaceflight and a Starlink mission. It will aim for a downstream recovery landing in the Atlantic Ocean aboard the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
This is the 35th launch from the Space Coast, with all but two coming from SpaceX.
United Launch Alliance has completed the other two launches and is awaiting its third with the Crew Flight Test mission to send astronauts aboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner atop an Atlas V. Teams canceled that launch attempt Monday evening due to a valve problem on the upper Centaur stage of the Atlas V.
Teams decided to bring the Atlas V back to the ULA Vertical Integration Facility to replace the valve and that launch is now scheduled for no earlier than May 17.
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