SpaceX on Monday is targeting the latest launch window in a series of late-night rocket launches to expand its ever-growing Starlink satellite constellation for high-speed internet.
Although SpaceX has not yet confirmed the existence of the Starlink 6-30 mission, various navigational advisories indicate that the 4 1/2-hour launch window will open at 11 pm EST on Monday and continue after midnight on Tuesday until 3:31 A.M.
Additional details:
- on: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Station.
- location: Launch Complex 40.
- a path: southeast.
- Local sonic boom: no.
- Booster landing: Drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX Starlink produced a similar launch window at 2:47 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. This Night Owl mission marks the 65th orbital launch of the year so far from the Space Coast, adding to the ongoing annual record for 2023.
The day before liftoff, SpaceX announced that its Starlink high-speed internet network was now available across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean.
“Since being awarded the original license to operate the Starlink Generation 1 network in March 2018, SpaceX has rapidly deployed satellites to bring Internet to hard-to-reach places in the U.S. and abroad,” the company announced in February.
As of Saturday, SpaceX had launched 5,445 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit since May 2019, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Of that total, 5,041 are still in orbit, according to McDowell’s records.
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Monday night, National Weather Service meteorologists expect a cold front to drop the temperature around 57 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, with mostly cloudy skies and north-northwest winds of 10 to 15 mph.
Tuesday’s high temperature is expected to reach just 68 degrees at the military facility.
For the latest schedule updates on the Cape, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Rick Neil He is Florida Today’s space correspondent (for more of his stories, click here.) Call Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @Rick Neal1
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