A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 8-11 mission on Sept. 5, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
Update 12:16 p.m. EDT: The Falcon 9 first stage booster, B1077, successfully landed on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’
SpaceX managed to find good enough weather to launch its 85th Falcon 9 rocket of the year late Thursday morning. The mission, dubbed Starlink 8-11, added another 21 Starlink satellites to the company’s megaconstellation. It was delayed a day due to poor weather in the recovery zone on Wednesday.
This launch maredk the 7,000th Starlink satellite launched to date, according to statistics compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and expert orbital tracker. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 11:33 a.m. EDT (1533 UTC).
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1077 in the SpaceX fleet launched for a 15th time on this mission. It previously supported the launches of the Crew-5 and CRS-28 Dragon missions to the International Space Station; the NG-20 Cygnus flight to the orbiting outpost; and eight Starlink missions.
About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1077 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions,’ and the recovery vessel, ‘Bob,’ was used to scoop the payload fairing halves out of the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 91st landing JRTI and the 344th booster landing to date.
Among the 21 Starlink satellites onboard the rocket are 13 that include Direct to Cell capabilities. It will bring the total number of DTC Starlink satellites up to 194 launched to date.
Weather, weather go away
The mission comes as SpaceX and the Polaris Program continue tracking the weather outlook to see if they can find a window of good enough weather to support the Polaris Dawn mission. At issue are the conditions around Florida during the end of the flight, when the Crew Dragon Resilience and its four-member crew would need to splashdown.
The mission lasts five full days, with splashdown set for the sixth day. Originally, the Falcon 9 supporting this launch was set to take off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
However, the flight was scuttled first due to a ground systems issue and then connected to the weather outlook. The opportunities are not infinite though.
Eventually, SpaceX will need to convert the pad at LC-39A from a Falcon 9 to a Falcon Heavy configuration, a process that takes weeks. The change over is to support the launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which was arranged by NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP).
The launch window for Europa Clipper opens on Oct. 10.
“SpaceX continues to improve and reduce the LC-39A pad conversion processing timelines when changing configuration between Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. LSP will utilize these improvements for the Europa Clipper mission,” said Tim Dunn, LSP Senior Launch Director, to Spaceflight Now in a statement. “The exact number of days required for the configuration change has not been finalized but it will be less than 25 days.”
SpaceX hasn’t stated if it’s considering using Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) as an alternate launch site for the Polaris Dawn mission, if they run out of time to launch before the conversion work needs to happen. It is currently scheduled to launch its first Crew Dragon mission from that pad when it sends NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS on the Crew-9 mission no earlier than Sept. 24.
Staying busy in quarantine with some formation flying, timeline review, staying fit and focused on the mission ahead. Grateful for the amazing team and this incredible opportunity. Big launch day is getting closer. https://t.co/273eEpwzII pic.twitter.com/OxkbhZYVNi
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) September 1, 2024
