Replace for Aug. 7: SpaceX stood down from a launch try on Aug. 7 to carry out further checks on its Falcon 9 rocket, the corporate posted to X this morning. SpaceX will now goal for a window that opens at 9:40 a.m. ET (1340 GMT) on Friday, Aug. 8.
SpaceX will launch its a centesimal mission of the yr as we speak (Aug. 8), and you’ll watch the motion reside.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 of Amazon’s Venture Kuiper web satellites is scheduled to carry off from Cape Canaveral House Power Station in Florida on Friday, throughout a 27-minute window that opens at 9:40 a.m. EDT (1340 GMT).
SpaceX will stream the launch reside by way of its web site and X account, starting about quarter-hour earlier than liftoff.
Friday’s launch would be the 97th Falcon 9 liftoff of the yr already and SpaceX’s a centesimal mission of 2025 general. The opposite three had been suborbital check flights of Starship, the massive, reusable car that the corporate is creating to assist humanity settle Mars.
SpaceX additionally operates a 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy, which hasn’t flown since October 2024, when it despatched NASA’s Europa Clipper probe towards the Jupiter system.
If SpaceX maintains its present tempo, it should launch about 165 occasions this yr. That may break the corporate’s single-year report of 138, which it set in 2024. (Final yr’s breakdown: 132 Falcon 9 liftoffs, two Falcon Heavy launches and 4 Starship check flights.)
Greater than 70% of this yr’s Falcon 9 launches have been devoted to constructing out Starlink, SpaceX’s broadband megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO). Starlink presently consists of greater than 8,100 operational satellites, and it is rising on a regular basis.
Venture Kuiper, Amazon’s model of Starlink, continues to be within the early buildout stage. As we speak’s launch might be simply the fourth Kuiper liftoff to this point and can convey the variety of satellites within the new constellation to 102.
Kuiper will finally encompass over 3,200 spacecraft, which might be lofted on greater than 80 launches over the following few years. Quite a lot of rockets will do that work; along with the Falcon 9, Amazon has enlisted Arianespace’s Ariane 6, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur.
If all goes to plan on Friday, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, touching down within the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas.”
Will probably be the debut flight for this explicit booster, in keeping with a SpaceX mission description. That is fairly uncommon, as the corporate is thought for its rocket reuse; its most-flown Falcon 9 has 29 flights below its belt.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, will proceed carrying the 24 Venture Kuiper satellites to LEO. They will be deployed over a 7.5-minute span starting about 56 minutes after liftoff, if all goes to plan.
About The Author
