24.11.2024

SpaceX rocket launch doubleheader may occur Monday, with twin Starlink missions possible

Monitor launch schedules: There's a possible Monday doubleheader of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket liftoffs coming up from Florida's Space Coast.

Though the Eastern Range calendar sees frequent change, navigational warnings indicate the first Falcon 9 could launch before sunrise Monday morning — while the second rocket may lift off shortly before midnight.

First off, a 4½-hour SpaceX Starlink launch window will open from 4:32-9:03 a.m. EST Monday, a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency navigational advisory shows. This mission will take flight from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Then after nightfall, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows a second, similar Starlink launch window extending from 10:31 p.m. until 3:02 a.m. Tuesday. That liftoff would happen from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Both SpaceX missions will carry payloads of Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit, ascend along southeasterly trajectories, and target landings atop drone ships hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.

Monday's twin Starlink missions are slated to become the 83rd and 84th orbital rocket launches of 2024 from the Space Coast, further distancing the ongoing annual total from last year's short-lived record of 72 launches.

Elsewhere at the Cape, spectators at Jetty Park and Cape Canaveral can now see Blue Origin's first New Glenn rocket — which stands taller than a football field — standing vertical at the pad at Launch Complex 36 ahead of pre-launch testing. No target launch date has been set yet for this inaugural liftoff.

Quelle: Florida Today