Liftoff is no earlier than 8:17 p.m. ET on Wednesday (Feb. 7).

SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites on Wednesday evening (Feb. 8), weather permitting.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday no earlier than 8:17 p.m. EST (5:17 p.m. local California time or 0117 GMT on Feb. 8).

SpaceX will livestream the launch via its account on X. Coverage will begin about five minutes before the window opens.
SpaceX had originally planned the launch for early Wednesday morning (EST) but stood down with just seconds left in the countdown due to unfavorable weather. 

If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9's first stage will come back to Earthabout 8.5 minutes after liftoff for a landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
It will be the 14th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Seven of its 13 previous flights were Starlink missions.

Starlink is SpaceX's broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit, which currently consists of nearly 5,400 operational spacecraft. That number is growing all the time, as Wednesday evening's planned liftoff shows.

This Starlink launch will be the 11th orbital mission of the year for SpaceX. And there will be many more to come; the company aims to launch 144 missions in 2024.

Quelle: SC

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SpaceX scrubs Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base

Update 1:09 p.m. EST: SpaceX shifted the launch time to fall after the planned launch of NASA’s PACE mission from Cape Canaveral.

Poor weather proved insurmountable for the third time for SpaceX this week. After its first two attempts to launch a Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral supporting NASA’s PACE mission were scuttled, on Tuesday evening, SpaceX had to stand down from launching a batch of Starlink satellites from California.

Launch teams for the Starlink 7-13 mission got down to the final minute of the countdown before calling a scrub. Following a brief stint where they were targeting launch on Wednesday, SpaceX updated the planned launch of the mission to now target liftoff on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 4:56 p.m. PST (7:56 p.m. EST, 0056 UTC).

The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this launch, tail number B1071, will be making its 14th flight. It most recently supported the Starlink 7-8 launch on Dec. 8, 2023.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1071 will land on the SpaceX droneship, “Of Course I Still Love You,’ which is staged out in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, this will be the 82nd landing on OCISLY and the 211th droneship landing.

The mission was announced hours after strong ground winds forced SpaceX and NASA to stand down from attempting to launch NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That launch is now pushed back to 1:33 a.m. EST (0633 UTC) on Thursday, Feb. 8.

If the Starlink 7-13 launch is successful Thursday night, these will be the most current stats:

• 14th launch & landing of B1071
• 65th SpaceX launch from SLC-4E
• 133rd orbital launch from SLC-4E
• 297th Falcon 9 launch
• 82nd landing on OCISLY
• 271st Falcon 9 booster landing
• 5th orbital launch from California in 2024
• 12th SpaceX launch in 2024
• 26th orbital launch in 2024

Quelle: SN

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Update: 10.02.2024

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