SpaceX to launch 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is making ready for its newest Falcon 9 launch so as to add extra Starlink satellites to its rising mega-constellation.

The midnight hour launch options 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, 13 of which have Direct to Cell capabilities. Liftoff of the Starlink 12-5 mission from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is ready for 12:12 a.m. EST (0512 UTC).

Spaceflight Now could have stay protection starting about an hour previous to liftoff.

Coming into the launch alternative on Sunday, the forty fifth Weather Squadron forecast that there gained’t be any climate constraints to launch. It’s outlook suggests a larger than 95 % likelihood of excellent climate at liftoff with no listed climate constraints.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission will launch for a second time after beforehand launching as a Falcon Heavy aspect booster on the GOES-U mission. However, SpaceX didn’t differentiate between the 2 potential boosters and notice whether or not that is B1072 or B1086.

Somewhat greater than eight minutes after liftoff, the booster will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ If profitable, this would be the 89th booster touchdown on ASOG and the 381st booster touchdown to this point.

With the newest launch of DTC Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Dec. 5, SpaceX introduced that it accomplished its first orbital shell for that a part of the constellation. As of that payload deployment, SpaceX had launched 362 DTC Starlink satellites.