With the Falcon 9 launcher, SpaceX plans to launch 60 more Starlink internet satellites. The upcoming flight will be the first time SpaceX has flown a first stage 10 times. This achievement, the company previously said, could be a limit for booster reuse. Now, SpaceX intends to fly reused rockets on Starlink flights before one of them crashes.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - MAY 30: In this NASA handout image, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen prior to launch on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission's objective is scheduled for 2:42 a.m. EDT on Sunday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket will be powered by nine kerosene-burning Merlin 1D engines and will launch northeast from Florida's Space Coast, trailing in the footsteps of 26 previous dedicated Starlink flights.
The 45th Forecasting Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base said there is an 80% likelihood of good weather for launch at Cape Canaveral. In the downrange recovery area of the Falcon 9 booster in the Atlantic Ocean, there is also a strong risk of favorable upper level winds and acceptable weather.
"The overall threat for a delay looks to be small but the main weather concern for the primary day will be from the cumulus cloud rule," forecasters wrote Saturday in a statement from Patrick Space Force Base.
If required, a contingency day will be held on Monday, May 10, when weather conditions are expected to deteriorate marginally.
The 118th flight for SpaceX's 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 booster was launched on Sunday. SpaceFlightNow said the mission's star is SpaceX's flight leader: B1051, a nine-time veteran Falcon 9 first stage.
This frequent flier made its debut in 2019 when it deployed an uncrewed Crew Dragon capsule as part of NASA's Commercial Crew program's Demo-1 mission.
SpaceX Starlink Satellites: Here's How Many Times Every Booster Needs To Fly
Space.com said Sunday's launch, dubbed Starlink 26, is SpaceX's 14th mission in 2021, all of which have used a reused booster. It's also the second Starlink spacecraft to fly in less than a week after SpaceX's launch on May 4.
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SpaceX unveiled the beefed-up version of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket in 2018. The firm said in the same Space.com report that each booster will be able to fly at least 10 times with limited refurbishment in between launches, for a total of 100 times. This mission's rocket would be the first to cross the benchmark.
Those figures may be more of a guess than a hard cutoff. SpaceX has learned a lot about the refurbishment process. Elon Musk, the company's CEO and chairman, said in a previous Science Times report that the Falcon 9 would be pushed to its limits. In contrast, the company works to extend the Starlink super constellation.
Starlink was developed by SpaceX in the hopes of offering high-speed internet connectivity to people all over the world while also helping to finance the company's Mars aspirations. The app is aimed at consumers in rural or remote areas with little or no internet access, although anybody can use it.
SpaceX Starlink Satellites: Here's How Many Satellites Falcon 9 Deployed to Space
More than 1,500 of the flat-paneled spacecraft have been deployed into orbit by the corporation to date. SpaceX projected that the initial constellation would need at least 1,440 satellites to begin commercial operation.
As part of a worldwide beta-testing initiative that launched last fall for its own staff, the corporation has been actively testing the nascent internet service. The "Better than nothing beta" software has now been made available to the general public, with people from Germany, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand joining in.
Prospective customers will sign up for the service now by paying a small deposit on the company's website. However, the actual service will not be operational for several months.
In a previous Science Times report, SpaceX's Siva Bharadvaj said that 500,000 people have signed up for the service since its last mission on May 4.
How to Watch
You can watch the launch live below, courtesy of YouTube user LabPadre, 15 minutes before liftoff. You can also stream the launch live on SpaceX's website.
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