Friday night falcon

SpaceX is targeting Friday night for its next Starlink launch.SpaceX said the Starlink 6-49 mission is targeting a launch time of 9:22 p.m. Friday with he launch window running until 12:48 a.m. Saturday.The launch will occur from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.Don't miss the next Florida launch: Is there a launch today? Upcoming rocket launch schedule for SpaceX, ULA, NASA in FloridaAs the name suggests, this will be the 49th launch of the Group 6 Starlink satellites, a SpaceX satellite constellation which delivers internet service across the globe. Like all Starlink missions, these satellites will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.If conditions are clear, the bright Falcon 9 will be visible around the Space Coast area shortly after launch, providing a Friday night show. As of Thursday afternoon, the 45th Weather Squadron called for more than a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for launch.This Falcon 9 is celebrating its 20th flight, having previously flown memorable crewed missions such as Inspiration4 and AX-1.This rocket will be traveling at a Southeast trajectory out over the Atlantic Ocean. The Falcon 9's first-stage booster will land on SpaceX drone ship, A Shortfall of Gravitas, in the Atlantic Ocean, so local sonic booms are not expected.For FLORIDA TODAY Space Team live coverage and updates, visit floridatoday.com/space starting about 90 minutes before liftoff.Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstarsThis article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX Falcon

On its third launch attempt, SpaceX was able to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-44 mission on March 15, 2024. Image: Pete Carstens/Spaceflight NowThe third time proved to be the charm for SpaceX as it was able to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 6-44 mission Friday night from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It came following a day of work and checkouts on the transporter erector at the launchpad.In a statement posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), SpaceX said that they stood down from a Thursday night launch attempt “to allow teams to work through an issue with the transporter erector’s cradle arms.”Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A happened at 8:21 p.m. ET on Wednesday (0021 UTC). The mission sent another 23 satellites to low Earth orbit, which pushes the total Starlink satellites launched to date to more than 6,000.The first stage booster supporting this mission, B1062, launched for a 19th time, tying it as the flight leader alongside B1058 and B1061. B1058 was destroyed during its voyage back to Port Canaveral.B1062 previously launched two GPS satellites; Inspiration4 and the Ax-1 crewed flights; and 11 Starlink missions among its previous 18 launches.About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1062 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This was the 61st landing on ASOG as well as the 284th SpaceX booster landing to date.This was SpaceX’s 26th launch in 2024, including 25 Falcon 9 rockets and one Starship launch. This was also the 50th orbital launch

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 20 Starlink satellites from Florida on June 4, 2024.(Image credit: SpaceX via X)Editor's update for 5:51 pm ET: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 new Starlink satellites suffered a last-second abort while attempting to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 14. A new launch date will be announced when the rocket is again ready, SpaceX has said.SpaceX is scheduled to launch 22 more of its Starlink broadband satellites to orbit from Florida's Space Coast on Friday (June 14) after a series of weather delays.The Starlink satellites will lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a just over three -hour window that opens at 5:07 p.m. EDT (2107 GMT). SpaceX will stream the action live via its account on X, beginning about five minutes before launch. The company has until 8:19 p.m. EDT (0019 GMT) to launch the mission.SpaceX had planned to launch the mission on Wednesday (June 12) and then again Thursday (June 13), but pushed the try back by another 24 hours due to poor weather conditions. The company also has a backup launch day on Saturday (June 15), if needed.The Falcon 9's first stage will come back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after launch, if all goes according to plan, landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. It will be the 16th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Ten of its 15 flights to date have been Starlink missions. The remaining five missions were commercial flights to loft the SES-22 satellite, ispace's private Hakuto-R Mission 1 moon lander, the Amazonas-6 communications satellite, CRS-27 cargo mission for NASA and Bandwagon-1 multi-payload rideshare flight, SpaceX said.The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them about 53 minutes after liftoff.Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!SpaceX has launched 60 orbital missions so far in 2024, which works out to an average of one liftoff every 2.7 days. Forty-three of these launches have been dedicated to building out the Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of nearly 6,100 operational spacecraft.Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:30 p.m. ET on June 13 with the new target launch date of June 14.Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space,