After taking a roughly two-week break to concentrate on Crew Dragon’s astronaut launch, SpaceX is prepared to return to its regular programming of rapid-fire Starlink, Cargo Dragon, also commercial satellite launches.
Kicking off what is setting up to be a jam-packed fourteen days of releases, a six-flight Falcon 9 booster, expendable upper stage, and also 60 Starlink satellites went vertical at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) mat on April 27th. The booster is scheduled to launch for the first time as part of their firm ’s 24th operational Starlink launch (Starlink-24) no sooner than 11:44 pm EDT (03:44 UTC) on Wednesday, April 28th.
This one day slip will be a result of the droneship not being in position on time.The tugboat towing JRTI droneship suffered a mechanical malfunction overseas and the other tug had to rescue and take over, causing a delay. https://t.co/GKq1QWKxR4
— Gavin Cornwell (@SpaceXFleet) April 27, 2021
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Starlink-24 was originally meant to launch around midnight the exact identical day but had been pushed back ~23 hours when the tugboat tasked with towing drone boat Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) suffered an engine failure a few hundred kilometers offshore, necessitating both the rescue and rescue tug. The 23-hour delay ought to leave just enough time for the drone boat to be able to support Falcon 9 booster B1060’s seventh landing effort.
Starlink-24 also needs to be SpaceX’s and final launch this April, opening the door for as many as four Starlink launches (Starlink-25 via -28) in May, based on Next Spaceflight. Spaceflight Now reports that Starlink-25 is scheduled to launch at “early May,” maybe just a couple days to a week following Starlink-24. All four of SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 boosters (B1049, B1051, B1058, B1060) would have to fly – and one booster double – to launch Starlink-24 via Starlink-28 between today and the end of May.
Starlink-24 will be Falcon 9 booster B1060’s second launch in 35 times and seventh flight overall. (Richard Angle)
Falcon 9 booster B1061 may enter SpaceX’s general-purpose fleet after a second successful astronaut launch earlier this season. (Richard Angle)
Now SpaceX has reused Falcon 9 B1061 to launch astronauts on April 23rd, a first in spaceflight history, it’s potential that the company will be able to move that booster into its mid-afternoon fleet, developing it in four to five.
Aside from three or four Starlink assignments, no other Falcon 9 slips are anticipated in May. In June, however, SpaceX’s attention will likely shift to several major industrial assignments – a tiny rarity this year. No sooner than (NET) June 1st, a Falcon 9 aircraft is scheduled to launch radio supplier SiriusXM’s SXM-8 radio satellite, yet less than six months after sister satellite SXM-7 – also established by SpaceX – was declared a entire reduction mere weeks after attaining orbit.
SpaceX started SXM-7 on December 13th, 2020. (Richard Angle)
Falcon 9 booster B1067 came at McGregor, Texas at mid-March and finished static fire testing by mid-April. (Reagan – @bluemoondance74)
Meanwhile, SpaceX is scheduled to launch its next upgraded Cargo Dragon spacecraft as early as June 3rd, two weeks later SXM-8. On top of SpaceX and NASA confirmation a new Dragon 2 spacecraft will support the CRS-22 space station freight shipping mission, Next Spaceflight reports a new Falcon 9 booster – B1067 – will also be flying for the first time. This booster went vertical at SpaceX’so called McGregor, Texas aircraft testing centers in late March and finished static fire testing around three weeks later.
Last but likely not least, launch photographer Ben Cooper reports a flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 aircraft is scheduled to establish the US army ’s upgraded GPS III navigation satellite on June 17th. The GPS III SV05 mission will make Falcon 9 the very first flight-proven business rocket to establish a critical payload for the US Air Force or Space Force.
Even accounting for marginal flaws, SpaceX will likely have another 10-14 weeks to add one or two Starlink assignments to its June launch manifest. In the meantime, tune in to SpaceX’s official webcast around 11:30 pm EDT (03:30 UTC) to watch the ninth Starlink launch of 2021 live.
The article SpaceX gears up for two full weeks of Starlink, Dragon, along with satellite sticks appeared initially on TESLARATI.
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