Update at 3:07 PM EDT: SpaceX has delayed the T-0 liftoff time for its Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX continues to push its launch pace as it prepares another Falcon 9 rocket for flight on Friday evening. If the mission is successful, it will mark SpaceX’s 14th launch this month, a new industry launch record.
Naturally, this achievement will add to the record set earlier this week, when SpaceX launched its 13th Falcon 9 rocket to send the European Space Agency’s EarthCARE satellite into orbit. This latest mission, Starlink 6-64, is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, at 10:11 PM EDT (0211 UTC).
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about an hour before liftoff.
This mission’s first stage booster, tail number B1076, will be launched into the SpaceX fleet, for the 14th time. It has previously launched missions such as SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Services 26th (CRS-26) Dragon flight to the International Space Station, NASA’s TEMPO payload aboard the Intelsat 40e satellite and seven batches of Starlink satellites.
Just over eight minutes after liftoff, B1076 will land on the SpaceX drone, dubbed “A Shortfall of Gravitas.” If successful, this will be the 73rd landing for ASOG and the 315th booster landing for SpaceX.
The record-breaking launch comes at the end of a landmark weekend for SpaceX. May 25 marked the 12th anniversary of the Dragon spacecraft becoming the first private spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. May 30 was the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Demo-2 mission, marking the return of human spaceflight to American soil following the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.
SpaceX is preparing for two more crewed missions over the summer: Polaris Dawn and Crew-9.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Falcon 9 @NASADemo-2 mission to @space stationThe return of human spaceflight to the United States pic.twitter.com/jzwyCwam3l
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 30, 2024
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