SpaceX to launch batch of twenty-two Starlink satellites on West Coast Falcon 9 flight

SpaceX is gearing up for its fourth launch of 2024 with a Falcon 9 rocket set to ship 22 Starlink satellites as much as low Earth orbit, including to the greater than 5,300 satellites already in orbit.

The rocket is ready to liftoff from Area Launch Advanced 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Area Pressure Base in California on Friday, Jan. 12, at 12:59 a.m. PST (3:59 a.m. EST, 0859 UTC). It was pushed again a number of instances, most just lately from Thursday attributable to poor climate, in accordance with SpaceX.

The primary stage booster supporting this mission, tail quantity B1061, is ready to launch for the 18th time. It beforehand launched two astronaut flights, two Transporter ride-share missions and 7 Starlink flights amongst seven different missions.

Following liftoff, it’s going to land on the droneship ‘Of Course I Nonetheless Love You’ about 8.5 minutes later.

Whereas 4 launches in two weeks can be an unimaginable tempo for every other launch firm, SpaceX’s launch cadence has slowed down a bit at first of the yr since one in every of its East Coast droneships remains to be sidelined.

The droneship, ‘Simply Learn the Directions,’ has not but returned to service after B1058 fell over in the course of the restoration course of following the launch of the Starlink 6-36 mission in late December.

Whereas SpaceX didn’t say if Starlink 7-10 is carrying extra satellites that function direct to cellphone capabilities, the corporate has been making strides on the testing entrance. In an replace on Wednesday, SpaceX said that they efficiently despatched and acquired textual content messages by way of Starlink utilizing the T-Cell community.

“As the worldwide chief in rocket and satellite tv for pc launch and manufacturing, SpaceX is uniquely positioned to quickly scale our Direct to Cell community and can quickly launch a constellation of tons of of satellites to allow textual content service in 2024 and voice, information, and Web of Issues (IoT) providers in 2025,” SpaceX stated in a press release.

Satellite tv for pc connectivity direct to cell telephones may have an incredible impression all over the world, serving to individuals talk wherever and every time they need or must.
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) January 10, 2024

The corporate can be within the midst of making ready for the primary of 4 deliberate crewed missions to the Worldwide Area Station in 2024. The Ax-3 mission, coordinated by Axiom Area, is ready to liftoff from Launch Advanced 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 5:11 p.m. EST (2211 UTC).