by Chris Tobias
With Dragon D-1 snuggled safely against the International Space Station following its arrival on March 9, SpaceX will now turn its attention to the launch of its next batch of Starlink satellites from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center on March 15.
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to liftoff NET Sunday morning at 9:22 am EDT (1322 GMT) at Cape Canaveral in Florida carrying another 60 satellites that will be installed in SpaceX’s growing constellation of Starlink broadband internet satellites. Tomorrow’s launch will be SpaceX’s sixth launch of the year and its sixth Starlink launch to date.
The Falcon 9 booster for this mission will become the first booster to launch five times. This particular rocket is a veteran of previous Iridium NEXT and Starlink launches, as well as the launch of Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander and Indonesia’s Nusantara Satu satellite.
SpaceX will attempt to recover the Falcon 9’s first stage for a fifth time in the Atlantic Ocean aboard its drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. The company also hopes to catch and recover the fairings from this mission aboard its “fairing catcher” ships, GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief.
Those who wish to watch the launch live can tune in to SpaceX’s webcast of the mission approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.
Peace, love and rockets…
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