Because the month of March winds down, SpaceX hopes to squeeze in yet one more launch from California with a batch of twenty-two of its Starlink satellites on board.
Liftoff of the Starlink 7-18 mission from Vandenberg Area Drive Base is about for 7:30 p.m. PT (10:30 p.m. ET, 0230 UTC).
Spaceflight Now can have stay protection of the mission starting about half-hour previous to liftoff.
This would be the fifteenth flight for the primary stage booster supporting this mission, tail quantity B1071 within the SpaceX fleet. It beforehand launched two SmallSat Transporter rideshare mission, a pair of missions for the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace and NASA’s ocean-observing SWOT payload amongst others.
Following liftoff from Area Launch Complicated 4 East (SLC-4E), B1071 will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Nonetheless Love You,’ somewhat greater than eight minutes into flight. This may mark the 87th touchdown on OCISLY and the 289th booster touchdown so far.
SpaceX will deploy the Starlink satellites about an hour after launch from the Golden State. This mission would be the twentieth Starlink flight in 2024 and boosts SpaceX to greater than 6,100 Starlinks launched so far.
Based on astronomer and professional tracker, Jonathan McDowell, there are presently 5,680 Starlink satellites presently on orbit.
