SpaceX is set for another StarLink launch from Space Coast on Friday morning.
Carrying the 23-on-internet satellite, the Falcon 9 is set to be lifted from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 with backup options until 10:25am.
Space-released Delta 45 weather squadron predicts main concerns 85% of the time due to good launch conditions with lift-off wind. If it’s late on Saturday, the same chances are predicted, but there are concerns about thick cloud layers and magnification clouds.
This marks the 21st release of the first phase booster. This targets landing droneships for shortages of gravitas with downranges stationed in the Atlantic.
The mission is the 17th day of this year, on orbit from the Space Coast, making the most of the 93 launches seen among all providers in 2024.
Space Force says it predicted as many as 156 launches in 2025 between the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral launch pads.
So far, SpaceX has been flying all but one of its missions this year, with Blue Origin’s new Glenn debut being filled out on the launch card.
The next KSC launch is set for Wednesday as the Falcon 9 aims to lift it from launch pad 39-A at 7:17pm on the IM-2 mission.
The Moonbound launch carries a lunar lander for the intuitive machine of a commercial company named Athena. The company managed the first soft landing of the Commercial Lander on its IM-1 mission last year, but it leaned to one side.
The flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Month Payload Services program, with Athena Lander launched in January under the CLPS program but the name Firefly Aerospace, named Blue Ghost, which takes a long route to the month. It could break another lander. The third commercial lander of Japanese company Ispace is also heading for the moon, but will not arrive until the second half of the year.
Original issue: February 21, 2025 8:32am EST
