Update 7 for October: SpaceX is now targeting a Friday 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT) launch to launch the Intelsat G-23/G-24 mission after an automatic shutdown in October. 6. You can watch it from above.
SpaceX plans to launch its Falcon 9 rocket on its record-breaking 14th mission on Friday (October 6), and you can watch the action live.
The Sahin 9Intelsat is scheduled to lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT) Thursday, coinciding with the Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 satellites, in a 69-minute window. Watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company (opens in new tab).
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth and land on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas drone about 8.5 minutes after launch. The robotic ship will be placed in the Atlantic Ocean, several hundred miles off the coast of Florida.
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This will be the 14th release and landing for this particular amp, According to the SpaceX mission description (opens in new tab). The rocket previously helped launch the GPS III-3 Turksat 5A satellites, the Transporter-2 rideshare mission and SpaceX’s 10 large batches. starlink satellite internet.
Fourteen missions is the current record for a Falcon 9 first stage. it was only appointed last month BlueWalker during launch lifting 3 communications satellites and 34 Starlinks.
The mission schedule calls for Galaxy 33 to launch about 33 minutes after liftoff, and Galaxy 34 five minutes later.
The pair are “the next satellites in Intelsat’s comprehensive Galaxy fleet renewal plan, a next-generation technology that will provide Intelsat Media customers in North America with high-performance media distribution capabilities and unparalleled penetration of cable heads,” Luxembourg-based Intelsat wrote in his statement (opens in new tab). “This is critical to Intelsat’s US C-band clearing strategy.”
Friday’s launch will be SpaceX’s third in three days. The company presented on Wednesday Crew-5 astronaut mission for NASA as well as a party 52 Starlink satellites.
The mission was originally supposed to launch Thursday (October 6) evening, but the Falcon 9 initiated an automatic abortion in a short period of time (opens in new tab) before the scheduled flight. The abort was caused by a small helium leak, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk It was reported on Thursday through Twitter (opens in new tab).
Mike Wall is the author of “there (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter. @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).