CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla. — Even though the weather did not look promising, SpaceX was able to launch its Starlink mission on Wednesday afternoon. .
What You Need To Know
- The Falcon 9 rocket sent up the Starlink 6-98 mission
- The rocket’s first-stage booster has an impressive history
- Get more space coverage here ▶
The Falcon 9 rocket sent up Starlink 6-98 mission from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated SpaceX.
The launch window opened at 1:01 p.m. ET and it was set to close at 5:01 p.m. ET. That means SpaceX had during that time frame to launch its Falcon 9 rocket.
The liftoff time was at 1:08 p.m. ET.
The 45th Weather Squadron gave a 40% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only concerns being the thick cloud layers and the cumulus cloud rules.
Find out more about the weather criteria for a Falcon 9 launch.
Lucky 13?
This is the 13th mission for the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster B1085.
So far, B1085 has an impressive career, launching one crewed mission to the International Space Station, the first-ever civilian polar orbit and sending up two commercial companies’ lunar landers — with Firefly Aerospace being the first company to successfully land on the moon.
- Crew-9 mission
- Starlink 6-77 mission
- Starlink 10-5 mission
- RRT-1
- Blue Ghost and HAKUTO-R
- Fram2 mission
- Starlink 6-93 mission
- SXM-10 mission
- Eumetsat MTG-S1 mission
- Starlink 10-20 mission
- Starlink 10-27 mission
- Starlink 6-94 mission
After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was in the Atlantic Ocean
About the mission
The 29 satellites from the Starlink company, owned by SpaceX, will be heading to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands already there.
Once deployed and in their orbit, they will provide internet service to many parts of Earth.
Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been recording Starlink satellites.
Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:
- 9,476 are in orbit
- 8,242 are in operational orbit
Anthony Leone
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