Replace 6:50 p.m. EST: SpaceX scrubbed the launch time of the Starlink 6-39 launch for Saturday night time.
SpaceX is making ready to launch its largest batch of second technology Starlink satellites to this point on Sunday. The corporate loaded 24 Starlink V2 Minis onto its Falcon 9 rocket, which is making ready for flight at House Launch Complicated 40 at Cape Canaveral House Power Station.
Liftoff of the Starlink 6-39 mission is ready for no sooner than 4:34 p.m. EST (2134 UTC). This would be the eleventh devoted Starlink launch to this point in 2024 and contains another second-generations Starlink satellite tv for pc than Falcon 9 has carried on current flights. It’s not clear if SpaceX has achieved this additional capability by squeezing extra efficiency out of the Falcon 9 car, modifying the flight profile or lowering the mass of every satellite tv for pc. The primary V2 mini supply mission on Feb. 27, 2023 carried 21 satellites. SpaceX elevated the capability for every Cape Canaveral launch to 22 satellites in Could, earlier than elevating that quantity once more to 23 in October 2023.
Spaceflight Now could have reside protection beginning about one hour previous to liftoff.
About eight and a half minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail quantity 1069, will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This would be the 59th touchdown on this droneship and the 215th droneship touchdown to this point.
The Starlink satellites are set to deploy from the Falcon 9 higher stage a bit of greater than an hour after liftoff and can deliver the overall variety of Starlink satellites launched to five,896, in response to statistics tracked by astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.
Vacation spot landings
The Starlink 6-39 mission comes on the heels of a brand new worldwide partnership with The Bahamas.
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation (MOTIA) introduced a Letter of Settlement (LOA) with SpaceX on Tuesday that helps pave the best way for the corporate’s East Coast-based droneships to be stationed east of The Exumas for booster landings.
MOTIA mentioned that it will arrange “unique visibility of rocket landings” from areas round The Bahamas that may make it a “vacation spot as the one one among its type worldwide.”
“This Letter of Settlement with SpaceX marks a brand new period for The Bahamas. We’re honored to work with SpaceX to allow their Falcon 9 rockets to securely land on an autonomous droneship inside Bahamian waters, serving to to proceed their rocket reusability efforts,” mentioned Hon. I. Chester Cooper, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments & Aviation in The Bahamas, in an announcement.
“Concurrently, by way of Starlink’s excessive pace web from house, this settlement opens doorways to unprecedented alternatives for our residents, fostering long-term benefits for schooling, emergency response and innovation,” Cooper mentioned. “The Bahamian Authorities goals to make the most of this partnership for financial development, job creation and enhanced instructional alternatives.”
Starlink web entry was first established in The Bahamas again in August 2023. Members of the Bahamian delegation visited SpaceX headquarters on Monday previous to the announcement of the LOA, in response to Kiko Dontchev, vice chairman of launch for SpaceX in a publish on X.
Mega thrilling to see the announcement of the letter of settlement between @SpaceX and the Bahamas! This can allow falcon to land in Bahamian territorial waters and hopefully present superior droneship touchdown viewing alternatives. An enormous shout out to @arbowe and @opmthebahamas… pic.twitter.com/JRmqUNd5Z6
— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) February 21, 2024
Philip Courageous Davis, the prime minister of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, said on X that this settlement additionally “will present better connectivity for our faculties and improve the capabilities of our first responders.”
For SpaceX the brand new touchdown zone will permit it to optimize trajectories for launches into orbits requiring extra southerly trajectories. This can decrease ‘canine leg’ maneuvers required to skirt the Bahamas and giving the Falcon 9 the efficiency to hold extra Starlink satellites.
The Starlink 6-39 mission will see its first stage booster land east of The Bahamas, in a location beforehand used for this group of Starlink satellites.
