UPDATE: On Friday, August 11 at 1:17 a.m. ET, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched 22 of the second-generation “V2” mini satellites, that are larger and have four times the bandwidth of the previous models, to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the ninth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19, and now five Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth as planned, landing at sea on the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions about 8.5 minutes after launch.
Previously: SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 rocket originally scheduled to launch 22 of the second-generation “V2” mini satellites, that are larger and have four times the bandwidth of the previous models, is now rescheduled to 12:27 a.m. EDT (0427 UTC) early Friday morning. The 22 Starlink satellites will head into low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
If needed, an additional launch opportunity is available at 1:17 a.m. ET (5:17 UTC). Five backup opportunities are also currently available on Friday, August 11 starting at 9:30 p.m. ET (1:30 UTC on August 12) until 12:52 a.m. ET on August 12 (4:52 UTC). This will be the 11th launch of the V2 minis.
The company’s internet service is available in more than 60 countries and has more than 1.5 million subscribers according to reports in May of this year.
The first stage booster previously launched the Cargo Dragon CRS-24, Eutelsat Hotbird 13F, OneWeb 1, and SES-18/SES-19 missions, plus four Starlink deployment flights. Its last flight was the Starlink 5-12 mission on June 23, 2023.
After separating from the second stage about two and a half minutes into flight, the first stage booster, that had previously flown the Crew-6, SES O3b mPOWER and the Starlink 4-4 mission, will target landing on the drone ship, Just Read the Instructions stationed east of the Bahamas in the Atlantic. The booster’s last launch was 37 days ago.
The booster had previously flown the Crew-6, SES O3b mPOWER and the Starlink 4-4 missions. Its last launch was 37 days ago.