SpaceX is preparing for its second return to flight mission in as many months with a Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The launch of 21 Starlink satellites comes just days after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily grounded the Falcon fleet amid an investigation into a failed booster landing attempt on Wednesday.
Liftoff of the Starlink 9-5 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) is set for 9:58 p.m. PDT (12:58 a.m. EDT, 0458 UTC). This is poised to be the first of two back-to-back overnight launches.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1081 in the SpaceX fleet, will be launching for a ninth time. It previously supported the launches of the Crew-7 astronaut mission to the International Space Station, two climate-related spacecraft (PACE and EarthCARE) and a national security mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1081 is set to land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ If successful, this will be the 99th landing on OCISLY and the 342nd successful booster landing.
Among the 21 Starlink satellites onboard are 13 that feature Direct to Cell capabilities. This will mark the 59th dedicated Starlink launch in 2024 and the 122nd launch of the V2 Mini variety of Starlink satellite.
Back to flight (again)
While SpaceX was temporarily grounded from launching its Falcon 9 rockets, this go around was dramatically shorter than the paused caused by an upper stage anomaly in July, which lasted about two weeks. SpaceX was grounded for just a couple of days after one of its boosters, B1062, failed to land safely amid the Starlink 8-6 flight on Wednesday.
The landing failure was the first misfire in this way since the Starlink L19 mission in February 2021.
“The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation of the anomaly during the Starlink Group 8-6 mission remains open, provided all other license requirements are met,” the FAA said in a statement on Friday. “SpaceX made the return to flight request on Aug. 29 and the FAA gave approval on Aug. 30.”
SpaceX wasted no time in getting back to the launchpad. In the hours following the FAA’s statement, the company announced plans to launch the Starlink 9-5 and 8-10 missions from VSFB and Cape Canaveral Space Force Stanton respectfully.
The former of those two was originally billed as the second act of back-to-back scheduled launches on Wednesday. However, after the booster landing anomaly, SpaceX decided to hold off on launching the Starlink 9-5 flight.
SpaceX is also trying to determine when next it can attempt the launch of its next Crew Dragon mission: Polaris Dawn. On Thursday, SpaceX said it was still working to identify a launch date that would have a favorable weather setup for a splashdown off the coast of Florida about five days after launch.
Latest forecasts continue to show unfavorable weather conditions in the areas along Florida’s coast where Dragon would splash down upon returning from space. Once teams identify the next best opportunity for launch and return of the Polaris Dawn mission, we’ll provide an update.… pic.twitter.com/f0ZJpcbQf7
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 30, 2024
