Update for Oct. 7: SpaceX is now targeting a launch on Friday at 7:06 pm EDT (2306 GMT) to launch its Intelsat G-23/G-24 mission after an automatic abort on October 1. 6. You can see it above.
SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on its 14th mission on Friday (October 6), and you can watch the action live.
the falcon 9, topped with Intelsat’s Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 satellites, is scheduled to lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday during a 69-minute window opening at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT). ). See it live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company (opens in a new tab).
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9 first stage will return to Earth and land on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas drone approximately 8.5 minutes after launch. The robotic ship will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida.
Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight
It will be the 14th launch and landing of this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description (opens in a new tab). The rocket previously helped launch the GPS III-3 and Turksat 5A satellites, the Transporter-2 rideshare mission, and 10 SpaceX big batches. star link internet satellites.
Fourteen missions is the current record for a Falcon 9 first stage, established last month during a launch that lifted the BlueWalker 3 communications satellite and 34 Starlinks.
The mission schedule calls for Galaxy 33 to deploy about 33 minutes after liftoff and Galaxy 34 to deploy five minutes later.
The duo “are the next satellites in Intelsat’s comprehensive Galaxy fleet upgrade plan, a new generation of technology that will provide Intelsat Media customers in North America with high-performance media delivery capabilities and unmatched penetration of cable heads,” said Luxembourg-based Intelsat. wrote in a statement (opens in a new tab). “It is critical to Intelsat’s C-band cleanup strategy in the US.”
Friday’s launch will be SpaceX’s third in a three-day period. On Wednesday, the company released the Crew-5 astronaut mission for NASA as well as a lot of 52 Starlink satellites.
The mission was originally supposed to launch on Thursday night (October 6), but the Falcon 9 started an automatic abortion shortly (opens in a new tab) before the scheduled takeoff. The miscarriage was caused by a small helium leak, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. he said via Twitter on Thursday (opens in a new tab).
Mike Wall is the author of “out there (opens in a new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; Illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @migueldwall (opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacepointcom (opens in a new tab) or in Facebook (opens in a new tab).
