SpaceX is targeting a Monday morning mission that could create a high-profile dual Starlink-Starliner launch rocket in 11 hours or less from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, navigational warnings indicate.
Although SpaceX has not publicly announced this mission, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Coast Guard maritime safety bulletins show that the Starlink launch window will open on Monday from 11:34 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. EDT. SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rockets on its Starlink missions to deploy satellites into low Earth orbit.
Hours later, the odds of suitable weather should reach 95% for Monday’s main event: the launch of the first crewed Boeing Starliner spacecraft at 10:34 p.m. for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
For the latest information on both launches, go to floridatoday.com.
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“We’re still a few weeks away from the summer thunderstorm season here in east-central Florida,” Brian Cizyk, a weather officer with the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, said Friday during a NASA pre-launch news conference.
“Although we are experiencing a somewhat summer-like pattern with a ridge of high pressure taking over in the Atlantic, we are not experiencing the humidity and instability that we might experience in June, July and August,” Žižek said.
NASA astronauts Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore will launch inside Starliner on a test flight to the International Space Station aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41.
Monday night’s mission will be only the sixth time NASA has flown a new crew-carrying spacecraft, NASA anchor Megan Cruz said during the press conference.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: “The first time humans flew on a new spacecraft started with Mercury, then with Gemini, then with Apollo, the Space Shuttle, then Dragon – and now Starliner.”
About 26 and a half hours after liftoff, Williams and Willmore are supposed to dock with the International Space Station at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday, said Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager.
“Once Butch and Sonny are on board, they will be there for a little over a week,” said Dana Weigel, NASA’s International Space Station program manager. “Their primary activities that week are on the Starliner itself.”
“They’ll be running it through its paces. They’ll be looking at the emergency equipment configuration on their spacecraft. They’ll also be doing some other activities that will validate the operations that we’ll eventually need for some of the longer-duration missions,” Weigel said.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neil He is Florida Today’s space correspondent. Contact Neal on[email protected]. Twitter/X: @Rick Neal1
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