SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Florida, but scrubs Sunday's second mission
Jamie GrohUpdate: Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and uncrewed Dragon vessel at 11:47 a.m. EDT, Monday, June 5, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida followed by a booster landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean a short time later.Read our full post-launch story here.
SpaceX kicked off Sunday with the first of two Falcon 9 missions slated to launch from Florida just hours apart, but the second couldn't get off the ground due to weather conditions in the Atlantic Ocean.
At 8:20 a.m. EDT, a Falcon 9 roared to life at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to mark the 27th launch from the Space Coast this year. Meanwhile, SpaceX was setting up to launch another less than four hours later from Kennedy Space Center, but teams scrubbed that mission due to high winds in the Atlantic recovery zone where a drone ship was waiting to host the Falcon 9 rocket's landing.
After flying a southeast trajectory from Launch Complex 40 and threading between Florida and the Bahamas, the 230-foot rocket carried 22 second-generation Starlink satellites to orbit. About eight minutes after liftoff, the first-stage booster targeted SpaceX's "Just Read the Instructions" drone ship for a landing in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch doubleheader:SpaceX will try to launch two Falcon 9 rockets from Florida on Sunday
What was the payload?
All told, SpaceX has launched over 4,500 Starlink internet-beaming satellites.
The company's near-global constellation operates about 340 miles above Earth to deliver high-speed connectivity services to rural and hard-to-reach destinations around the globe. Sunday's mission features 22 of the second-generation model of the satellites called "V2 Minis."
Starlink customers number more than a million, but SpaceX is nowhere near done building out its orbital network. The company expects to launch tens of thousands of the satellites to service residential and business customers on every continent, as well as provide in-motion service for boats, planes, and recreational vehicles.
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Rocket launch schedule:Upcoming Florida launches and landings
When's the next launch?
After the scrub of Sunday's second launch, NASA and SpaceX teams re-targeted 11:47 a.m. EDT Monday, June 5, for the next mission carrying cargo to the International Space Station. That mission is slated to fly from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A.
The resupply flight sending thousands of pounds of cargo and science experiments to crew aboard the ISS will mark SpaceX's 28th cargo run for NASA and the 28th mission to fly from Florida in 2023.
Had back-to-back launches happened Sunday, it would have been a notable achievement, but not a record-breaker for fastest turnaround between two Florida missions. That honor still belongs to NASA's Gemini program, which launched two separate vehicles in a roughly 90-minute window in 1966.
Look for FLORIDA TODAY's live launch coverage of that mission to begin 90 minutes before liftoff at https://www.floridatoday.com/space/.
For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Contact Jamie Groh at JGroh@floridatoday.com and follow her on Twitter at @AlteredJamie.