SpaceX goals to notch one other milestone in spaceflight reusability Wednesday evening when it won’t solely launch its a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket booster for the 350th time in program historical past, but additionally try the three hundredth profitable booster touchdown.
The Starlink 9-14 mission is concentrating on a liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:05 p.m. PST (10:05 p.m. EST, 0305 UTC). However, in saying the mission on its web site although, SpaceX simply broadly stated, “The four-hour launch window opens at 4:06 p.m. PT.”
For the third time in as many launches from California, SpaceX left the general public at midnight as as to if or not the launch will likely be viewable through livestream. When it printed particulars of the launch on its web site Wednesday afternoon, it didn’t embody a hyperlink to a webcast, nor did it point out the mission on social media.
By distinction, SpaceX concurrently printed a launch web page for the deliberate launch of SiriusXM’s SXM-9 satellite tv for pc, which can raise off on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center late Thursday morning. Not solely did SpaceX embody a hyperlink to the livestream for the SXM-9 mission, but it surely additionally posted to its X account saying the launch. The Starlink 6-70 mission which launched from Cape Canaveral earlier Wednesday additionally had a webcast of liftoff that was introduced upfront.
SpaceX did find yourself dwell streaming the 2 earlier ascents from Vanenberg Space Force Base, NROL-126 and Starlink 9-13. However, in each circumstances, a dwell stream popped up nicely after the rockets had left the launch pad.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster for the Starlink 9-14 mission, with the tailnumber B1081, is launching for a twelfth time. It beforehand supported the launches of two missions to the International Space Station (Crew-7 and CRS-29), two climate-monitoring spacecraft (PACE and EarthCARE) and 5 earlier Starlink missions.
A bit of greater than eight minutes after liftoff, B1081 will intention to finish the three hundredth profitable droneship touchdown when it touches down on ‘Of Course I Still Love You,’ positioned within the Pacific Ocean. This would be the 379th total booster touchdown for SpaceX, if profitable.
Onboard the mission are 20 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, together with 13 that characteristic Direct to Cell capabilities. With this mission, SpaceX may have launched 349 DTC Starlink satellites because the first such launch on January 2.
In late November, SpaceX acquired approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to start rolling out mobile service alongside its home telecom companion, T-Mobile.
Thank you to @NASA , @NTIAgov , @NSF , for his or her coordination work with us, and all of our telco companions, particularly @TMobile !
We hope to activate worker beta service within the US quickly.
— Ben Longmier (@longmier) November 26, 2024
The FCC allowed SpaceX to make use of its beforehand approved as much as 7,500 second technology Starlink satellites utilizing the V-band frequency from 340 km to 360 km.
“SpaceX is permitted to speak with these satellites within the beforehand approved Ku-, Ka-, E-, and V-band frequencies, in conformance with the technical specs SpaceX has offered to the Commission, the circumstances beforehand positioned on its authorizations, and the circumstances we undertake at this time,” the FCC wrote in a Nov. 26 submitting.
“Authorization to allow SpaceX to function as much as 7,500 Gen2 satellites in decrease altitude shells will allow SpaceX to start offering lower-latency satellite tv for pc service to assist rising demand in rural and distant areas that lack terrestrial wi-fi service choices.16 This partial grant additionally strikes the best stability between permitting SpaceX’s operations at decrease altitudes to offer low-latency satellite tv for pc service and allowing the Commission to proceed to observe SpaceX’s constellation and consider points beforehand raised on the report.”
