Making for a a busy weekend, on Saturday, December 2 at 11:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The Starlink 6-31 mission made it SpaceX’s second launch in less than 40 hours. There was concern from the U.S. Space Force meteorologists about the potential for ‘rocket-trigger’ lightning from thick cloud layers and cumulus clouds as well as a low to moderate risk of upper level wind shear posing a threat. The favorable result was a thin layer of cloud cover in the sky over Cape Canaveral.
This was the sixth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-6, SES O3b mPOWER, and now four Starlink missions landing in the Atlantic on the recovery vessel named “Doug”.
The rest of the week promises to be busy as there will be a static fire test on Sunday in anticipation of the USSF-52 mission launch scheduled for a week later on December 10 making it the first time the Falcon Heavy has been used to launch the U.S. military’s X-37B spaceplane. No date has been set for the launch window.