Live Coverage: 22 Starlink satellites set to soar from Cape Canaveral

Updated 3:05 p.m. EDT (1905 UTC): New launch time.

SpaceX has pushed back the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying another 22 second-generation Starlink satellites to early Friday morning.

Liftoff from pad 40 is now scheduled for 12:27 a.m. EDT (0427 UTC). The first stage booster, tailnumber B1069, is making its ninth flight. It previously launched the Cargo Dragon CRS-24, Eutelsat Hotbird 13F, OneWeb 1, and SES-18/SES-19 missions, plus four Starlink deployment flights. Its last flight was the Starlink 5-12 mission on 23 June 2023.

After lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40, the Falcon 9 will soar south-east, targeting an orbit inclined at 43 degrees to the equator. After separating from the second stage about two and a half minutes into flight, the first stage booster will head downrange for a landing on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions, which will be stationed in the Atlantic east of the Bahamas.

The booster had previously flown the Crew-6, SES O3b mPOWER and the Starlink 4-4 missions. Its last launch was 37 days ago.

Two burns of the second stage are required to place the satellites into the required circular orbit. Separation of the 22 satellites will occur about one hour, five minutes after launch.

A file photo of SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini satellites inside a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX

It will be the 11th launch of the so-called V2 mini satellites which are larger and have four times the bandwidth of the previous models. The full-sized V2 Starlink satellites are due to be launched by SpaceX’s fully-reusable Starship vehicle, but the delayed debut of Starship led SpaceX to create a condensed version of the satellites so they could be launched on Falcon 9.

In early May, SpaceX announced it had more than 1.5 million subscribers to Starlink. The company’s internet service is available in more than 60 countries.