SpaceX hopes to follow up the successful launch of a European TV satellite with a pair of its own Starlink missions from both Florida and California. The first Falcon 9 flight is scheduled to depart from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on pad 40.
The Starlink 6-45 mission is scheduled to launch at 9:02 PM EDT (0102 UTC). This will be the twentieth Starlink mission of 2024.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage starting about an hour before liftoff.
The launch weather for the mission is as perfect as can be. The 45th Weather Squadron predicted a greater than 95 percent chance of favorable launch conditions, with thick cloud layer base as the main observing element.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1067, will be launched into the SpaceX fleet, for the 18th time. It has previously supported missions such as Crew-3 and Crew-4 missions to the International Space Station; Commercial Resupply Services Flights 22 and 25 to the International Space Station; And eight Starlink missions.
About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1067 is scheduled to touch down on SpaceX's “A Shortfall of Gravitas” unmanned vehicle. This will be ASOG's 63rd landing and 290th boost landing to date.
According to astronomer and satellite tracking expert, Jonathan McDowell, there are 5,677 Starlink satellites currently in orbit, out of a total of 6,079 satellites launched. Starlink 6-45 will add another 23 missions to these totals and marks the 20th Starlink mission of 2024.
Earlier this week, SpaceX noted that Argentina had become the 72nd country in the world to allow access to the service. On March 8, the company shared data that it said showed progress toward lowering its price Response time“, with a goal [less than] Access time 20 ms.
“Over the past month, we've significantly reduced average and worst-case latency for users around the world. In the U.S. alone, we've reduced average latency by more than 30 percent, from 48.5 milliseconds to 33 milliseconds during peak hours.” Usage. “Peak hour latency (p99) in the worst cases has decreased by more than 60 percent, from more than 150 milliseconds to less than 65 milliseconds. Outside the US, we've also reduced average response time by up to 25 percent and worst-case response time by up to 35 percent.
Good progress by the SpaceX Starlink team in reducing latency (ping)! https://t.co/zyqEKgTHwW
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 8, 2024
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