SpaceX looks to send up another Starlink launch from the Space Coast on Tuesday night, this time carrying some satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities.
A Falcon 9 rocket is targeting a 10:16 p.m, liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with more opportunities on Wednesday evening beginning at 7:50 p.m.
The payload is 20 Starlink satellites, 13 of which are designed to transmit directly to cell phones.
Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts a 90% chance for good conditions, which if delayed 24 hours would fall to 80%, but improving to 90% by end of backup window.
This is the 20th flight of the first-stage booster that will attempt a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean.
It marks the 42nd launch from the Space Coast this year, with all but two coming from SpaceX.
Boeing’s Starliner set up for 3rd shot at 1st human spaceflight
United Launch Alliance, which flew the other two, is set to fly its third of the year just over 12 hours later on Wednesday morning from neighboring Space Launch Complex 41. That launch is an Atlas V rocket on the Crew Flight Test launch of a Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station.
The launch attempt is the third try of what would be the first human spaceflight for Starliner. The mission was scrubbed on May 6 and this past Saturday with both astronauts making the trip out to the launch pad. The most recent scrub came within four minutes of launch.
Liftoff is targeted for 10:52 a.m. in what could be the 43rd launch of the year.