Weather may have stymied the launch of four astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission, but SpaceX is planning to take advantage of their range reservations, both in Florida and California. The company aims to launch back-to-back batches of Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rockets from both Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Vandenberg Space Force Base Wednesday morning.
First up is the Florida mission, dubbed Starlink 8-6, which will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at 2:54 a.m. EDT (0654 UTC). It will be followed by the second Starlink flight, potentially as soon as about an hour later.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour before liftoff of the Starlink 8-6 mission.
The Falcon 9 rocket supporting the Starlink 8-6 mission, tail number B1062, will launch for a record 23rd time, becoming the flight leader for SpaceX. It previously supported the launches of two GPS satellites, two astronaut mission (Inspiration4 and Axiom Mission 1) and 15 Starlink flights.
About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1062 will land on a SpaceX droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. This will mark the 342nd booster landing to date.
Onboard the flight are 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 that feature Direct to Cell capabilities. This will bring SpaceX up to 155 DTC Starlink satellites launched to date.
During its mission, the astronauts of the forthcoming Polaris Dawn mission will perform a on-orbit demonstration of Starlink connectivity. Mission commander Jared Isaacman told Spaceflight Now in July that this will be a good stepping stone to help push forward communication in space.
“There is only so much capacity on the TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) satellites. Ground stations, there’s not many of them. They are also in demand. And if you can create a constellation, not just in low Earth orbit, but in lunar orbit as well, you can transmit very effectively over laser links,” Isaacman said. “It is a good step in that direction and SpaceX is already moving in that direction of making available those laser links on Starlink to other providers. So, it’s really awesome just for all of commercial space.”
Polaris Dawn is now set to launch no earlier than Friday, Aug. 30, after weather conditions forecast for their planned return from space pushed the launch date off of Wednesday.
Our launch criteria are heavily constrained by forecasted splashdown weather conditions. With no ISS rendezvous and limited life support consumables, we must be absolutely sure of reentry weather before launching. As of now, conditions are not favorable tonight or tomorrow, so… https://t.co/Zpd3pY5kNF
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) August 28, 2024
