Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing to launch its fourth Falcon 9 rocket since Sunday with a mission carrying the company’s latest batch of Starlink internet satellites.

Liftoff of the Starlink 6-66 mission pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 11:07 a.m. EST (1607 UTC) on Thursday. Space Force meteorologists give the rocket a 90 percent chance of good weather for launch, with liftoff winds being the only concern at the launch site. They also listed recovery weather in the booster landing zone as a low to moderate risk.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.

The launch comes days after SpaceX’s largely successful Starlink Flight 6 mission on Tuesday, which showcased the first daytime splashdown of its Ship upper stage.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, with the tail number B1069, is launching for a 20th time. It previously supported the launches of CRS-24, OneWeb 15 and 15 previous Starlink flights.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ If successful, it will be the 86th booster landing on ASOG and the 372nd booster landing to date.

On Monday, Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, noted that there were 21 more launches on the company’s launch manifest that it wanted to complete before the end of the year. 

If SpaceX is able to notch all of them before the end of the year, it will close out 2024 with 136 orbital launches. Two of this year’s launches were Falcon Heavy rockets. The Falcon 9 has had a single failure this year on the Starlink 9-3 mission which suffered an upper stage issue.

21 launches remain on the manifest in 2024 with 43 days to go https://t.co/mYZUh2s2Dh

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) November 18, 2024

With President-elect Donald Trump and newly-minted efficiency czar Elon Musk looking on, SpaceX launched the world’s most powerful rocket on its sixth test flight Tuesday, an up-and-down trip to space by a gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship to evaluate a variety of safety and performance upgrades.

Shattering the afternoon calm with an ear-splitting roar, the huge 30-foot-wide, 397-foot-tall rocket blasted off from Musk’s sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, manufacturing and test facility on the Gulf Coast near Brownsville at 5 p.m. EST, the opening of a 30-minute launch window.

With its 33 Raptor engines gulping 40,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and methane per second, the Super Heavy-Starship majestically climbed away to the east over the Gulf of Mexico atop a brilliant plume of white-hot flame and a churning cloud of exhaust.

Two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, after pushing the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere, the Starship’s six Raptor engines ignited to continue the climb to space while the Super Heavy booster fell away, reversed course and began flying back to the launch site.

The flight plan called for the Super Heavy to return to its launch pad for capture by a giant set of mechanical arms. But an issue of some sort, either with the rocket or the capture mechanism on the pad, prompted flight controllers to order a diversion to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

As it was, the final descent appeared normal and well controlled as the rocket restarted three Raptors to slow is rate of fall before settling to a vertical, low-speed splashdown just off the shore at Boca Chica while the Starship upper stage continued on into space.

The International Space Station was passing over eastern Mexico at the moment of liftoff.

“We just saw Starship launch,” astronaut Sunita Williams radioed. “Pretty awesome! We’re getting pictures.” Crewmate Don Pettit told flight controllers in Houston “it looked pretty cool from orbit. We’re downloading them now.”

Trump flew to Texas earlier in the afternoon and watched the launch and booster splashdown with Musk. During a September 21 speech in Wilmington, N.C., Trump urged Musk to “get those rocket ships going because we want to reach Mars before the end of my term. We want to do it.”

As with the rocket’s fifth test flight last month, the primary goals of Tuesday’s flight was to boost the Starship out of the lower atmosphere on a sub-orbital flight to re-entry over the Indian Ocean while the Super Heavy booster executed the return-to-launch-site mid-air capture or, as it turned out, a safe ocean splashdown.

But this time around, one of the Starship’s methane-burning Raptor engines was successfully re-started in space to demonstrate the propulsion system’s ability to perform critical maneuvers and future de-orbit burns.

Engineers also were testing “a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean,” SpaceX said on its web page, along with software and booster hardware upgrades intended to add additional propulsion system redundancy and increase the rocket’s structural strength.

Spectacular video from cameras mounted on the Starship showed a sheath of super-hot plasma engulfing the vehicle as it rapidly slowed in a blaze of atmospheric friction.

And even though it was using an older-generation heat shield and flying in a deliberately more difficult-to-control orientation, the Starship executed a picture-perfect splashdown, firing three Raptors to slow down for a vertical descent into the ocean.

The October test flight was the first featuring a successful launch pad catch and the first with a Starship that reached the Indian Ocean essentially intact. For Tuesday’s flight, launch was moved to the late afternoon in Texas to ensure a daylight splashdown for video documentation.

The Super Heavy-Starship is the centerpiece of Musk’s drive to develop a fully reusable heavy-lift rocket, which he says is the key to making humanity “multi-planetary.” And now, with Trump’s support, he may be able to kick start that effort.

Shortly after winning the presidential election, Trump announced that Musk and one-time presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy would lead a new agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency. The goal, Trump said in a statement, is to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulation, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies.”

Musk said in the same statement: “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people.”

SpaceX already holds billions in government contracts and is building a variant of the Starship to serve as the initial lunar lander in NASA’s Artemis program. It remains to be seen how Musk’s role in the new administration might advance SpaceX’s plans or how questions about conflicts of interest might be resolved.

Politics aside, “we are looking at a serious effort to return to the moon, and maybe a serious effort … to send, if not humans to Mars in the next four years, a lot of stuff and a lot of infrastructure that will enable humans to get to Mars,” said Casey Drier, director of space policy for the Planetary Society.

“Maybe not in four years, but maybe in the next ten,” he said.

The key to those plans is the Super Heavy-Starship.

The Super Heavy booster is powered by 33 Raptor engines burning liquid methane and oxygen to generate more than 16 million pounds of thrust at full throttle, more than twice the liftoff power of NASA’s legendary Saturn 5 moon rocket. The Starship is powered by six Raptors and will be capable of carrying astronauts, satellites and science probes.

For its initial high-risk test flights, the rocket is flying without crew members.

Like the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, the 230-foot-tall first stage is designed to be fully reusable, flying itself back to the launch pad where giant “chopsticks” mounted on the pad gantry can catch the booster as it descends, enabling rapid servicing, re-fueling and launch.

Unlike the Falcon 9, which uses a throw-away second stage, the 160-foot-tall Starship also is reusable, capable of safely returning to Earth after launching satellites or carrying astronauts to the moon and eventually, Musk says, to Mars.

SpaceX already ferries astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the International Space Station using Falcon 9s carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and is building a variant of the Starship for NASA to carry astronauts back to the moon’s surface in the 2026-27 timeframe.

The company also launches commercial and military satellites, is building a powerful space tug for NASA to help drive the International Space Station safely out of orbit when the program is retired in 2030 and is launching thousands of its own Starlink satellites to provide global access to the internet.

“SpaceX functionally has the monopoly on access to space,” said Drier. “Pretty much any asset that you want to launch into space, whether you’re the U.S. government or commercial provider, a satellite company, even the European Space Agency, they are all using SpaceX rockets.”

After launching three Falcon 9 rockets in less than 20 hours, SpaceX is preparing to use its fourth and final active launchpad in the United States to launch its massive Starship rocket.

The mission, dubbed Flight 6, is set to be the fourth time SpaceX launches the nearly 400-foot-tall vehicle in 2024 and the sixth test flight of the fully integrated rocket in program history.

Liftoff of the suborbital flight from Pad 1 at Starbase at Boca Chica Beach, Texas, is set for 4 p.m. CST (5 p.m. EST, 2200 UTC).

Spaceflight Now will begin joint live coverage alongside LabPadre beginning about 1.5 hours before launch.

The mission will feature another attempt by SpaceX to catch its Super Heavy booster back at the launch pad using its ‘Mechazilla’ tower. The launch team will closely track data on both the rocket and the tower before making a call on if they are in a good position to catch the 71 m (232 ft) first stage.

The decision will come down to a command by the mission’s flight director.

“If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico,” SpaceX wrote in a prelaunch statement.

“We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only take place if conditions are right.”

In audio unintentionally shared by Elon Musk during a live stream of the video game “Diablo IV,” SpaceX employees described how close the catch during Flight 5 came to being a potential failure instead of the success seen on Oct. 13.

“On the landing burn, we had a misconfigured spin gas support that didn’t have quite the right ramp up time for bringing up spin pressure and we were one second away from that tripping and telling the rocket to abort and try to crash into the ground next to the tower,” a SpaceX employee said in the audio posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Oct. 25.

“Wow! Yikes,” Musk replied in the audio.

In a prelaunch interview with Spaceflight Now, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, the assistant-to-the-chief of the Astronaut Office, said he and his colleagues are hoping SpaceX can continue proving out the viability of its concept for catching and refurbishing its Super Heavy boosters. 

He said that ability is key to achieving the goals of the Human Landing System component of the Artemis program. Starship is designed to be the lander for the third and fourth Artemis missions.

“One data point was great. It would be great to see this be repeatable and see they’ve got some longevity on the concept. And then, it’ll be trying to catch the Starship tankers as well,” Bresnik said. “So, catch the first stage, catch the tanker up top, (then) it’ll be refueling.

“The biggest milestone were looking at next year is to see how those tankers can refuel the propellant Starship in Earth orbit and transfer that, you know, cryogenic fuel in space to fill up the depot that’s going to be sitting up there that the HLS Starship has to get its gas from after it launches because it can’t launch fully fueled.”

The Ship upper stage, tail number S31, will soar about halfway around the world, achieving near orbital velocity. During the voyage, SpaceX will attempt to relight one of the three Raptor vacuum engines.

Demonstrating this capability will be crucial to showing that Starship is capable of performing a deorbit burn following future orbital missions and not becoming a large mass of space junk.

At the end of a coast phase lasting a little more than an hour, S31 will attempt to perform a soft water landing, as it did during Flight 5, in the Indian Ocean. The difference this time around is that it will reach that part of the world in daylight, which is why SpaceX pushed the launch time at Starbase to the afternoon.

“Several thermal protection experiments and operational changes will test the limits of Starship’s capabilities and generate flight data to inform plans for ship catch and reuse,” SpaceX wrote. “The flight test will assess new secondary thermal protection materials and will have entire sections of heat shield tiles removed on either side of the ship in locations being studied for catch-enabling hardware on future vehicles. 

“The ship also will intentionally fly at a higher angle of attack in the final phase of descent, purposefully stressing the limits of flap control to gain data on future landing profiles.”

SpaceX launched its third Falcon 9 rocket in less than 24 hours, bringing all three of its launch pads into play. 

Capping off this trio was its second customer mission, this time launching a communications satellite for NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a government-run company and the commercial arm for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

This was the first time SpaceX launched a payload for India. The Geosynchronous SATellite N2 (GSAT-N2) is NSIL’s second so-called Demand-driven satellite.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 1:31 p.m. EST (1831 UTC), the opening of a roughly two-hour window.

Coming into Monday’s launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a greater than 95 percent chance of favorable weather at liftoff. Cumulus clouds were the only potential watch item for meteorologists.

“High pressure will be just off the coast in the Atlantic by the launch window, bringing mostly clear skies and light onshore winds,” launch weather officers wrote in their forecast on Sunday. “Abundant dry air will exist above the very lowest levels, so there is very little concern for any violations due to clouds.”

The Falcon 9 rocket supporting this mission, tail number B1073 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 19th time. It previously supported the launches of ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander, CRS-27 and 13 Starlink missions.

Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1073 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This marked the 98th booster landing for JRTI and the 371st booster landing to date.

Boosting communications

The GSAT-N2 satellite, also referred to as GSAT-20, weighed 4,700 kg (10,362 lbs) at liftoff and is designed to last 14 years in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO).

Monday afternoon’s launch marked the first time that SpaceX launches a payload for ISRO. While India has its own domestic launch capability with its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3), it’s capped at launching a payload of 4,000 kg.

That’s why NSIL announced a contract with SpaceX back on Jan. 2, 2024, for the launch of GSAT-20.

The previous launch of the GSAT system, named GSAT-24 (or GSAT-N1), launched on June 22, 2022, on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana.

Speaking with India-based news outlet NDTV on Nov. 16, Dr. Shri M. Sankaran, the director of of UR Rao Satellite Center and a scientist at ISRO, described the importance of launching this satellite as it is on a Falcon 9.

“When I look at 14 years of life for this particular satellite, we ended up with a mass around 4,700 kg and the current capability of LVM3 is limiting us from being able to launch on LVM3. Maybe the future upgrades of LVM3 such a satellite,” Sankaran said.

When asked by NDTV’s Science Editor Pallava Bagla if NSIL got a good launch deal by using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, Sankaran said he thought they were treated fairly.

“I would say, as far as the commercial launch price for launching this particular satellite is concerned, we are very convinced about the technical compatibility and also the commercial deal,” Sankaran said. “I would say it’s a good commercial deal for launching such a big satellite  on SpaceX, which is a Falcon 9.”

He said it would take a couple months to complete the orbital raising maneuvers and conduct operational checkouts.

According to ISRO, this latest satellite, GSAT-20, “is equipped with 32 user beams, comprising 8 narrow spot beams over the Northeast region and 24 wide spot beams over the rest of India. These 32 beams will be supported by hub stations located within mainland India. The Ka-Band HTS communication payload provides a throughput of approximately 48 Gbps.”

“GSAT-N2 is set to enhance broadband services and in-flight connectivity (IFC) across the Indian region,” NSIL said in a statement. “This satellite, featuring multiple spot beams and wideband Ka x Ka transponders, aims to support a large subscriber base with small user terminals, significantly boosting system throughput through its multi-beam architecture which allows frequency reuse.”

The spacecraft uses monomethylhydrazine (MMH) for fuel and a nitric oxide (MON3) as the oxidizer. The power system is based on a 70V satellite bus which has a pair of solar panels for power generation and lithium ion batteries for storage.

The overall body of the spacecraft is build upon what ISRO calls its standard Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP)-based I4K bus, which is “compatible with all major launch vehicles.”

“We see quite a good market potential for this satellite because, as I mentioned, such a heavy satellite with this much of a throughput, this is the first time we are making such a high throughput satellite of this magnitude,” Sankaran told NDTV. “So, I’m confident and optimistic that we should be able to make the best use of the services that the satellite is going to provide to us.”

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with another 20 Starlink satellites from California Sunday night.

The Starlink 9-11 mission featured 13 satellites that include Direct to Cell capabilities. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 9:53 p.m. PST (12:53 a.m. EST, 0553 UTC).

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1071 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for an 20th time. It previously launched two rideshare missions (Transporter-8 and Transporter-9), three national security missions (NROL-85, NROL-87 and NROL-146) and 12 Starlink missions.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1071 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This was the 109th landing on OCISLY and the 370th booster landing to date.

The payload on this flight includes 13 Starlink satellites that have Direct to Cell capabilities. Following the launch of Starlink 9-11 on Nov. 14, Ben Longmier, the senior director of satellite engineering at SpaceX, said there were “three more launches to complete the first satellite constellation for Starlink Direct to Cell.”

3 more launches to complete the first satellite constellation for @Starlink Direct to Cell. https://t.co/Vczdet1Qqx

— Ben Longmier (@longmier) November 14, 2024

Update 3:56 p.m. EST: SpaceX updated the launch time of the mission.

Update 4:08 p.m. EST: SpaceX pushed back the launch time of the mission.

Update 6:04 p.m. ESt: SpaceX landed its first stage booster on the droneship, following liftoff of the mission.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at sunset with a payload that has been shrouded in secrecy to the point of not disclosing any specifics of the mission, and not using its original name.

All regulatory filings and U.S. government agencies, like the Space Force and the Federal Aviation Administration, call the payload ‘Optus-X,’ while SpaceX calls the mission ‘TD7.’ SpaceX’s commentator noted that it was a communications satellite during the company’s livestream.

Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, Nov. 17, happened at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 UTC).

With this launch, SpaceX tied the total number of Space Shuttle launches from Launch Complex 39A with just its Falcon 9 rocket at 82 launches each. SpaceX is also close to eclipsing the total number of launches from NASA at that pad.

NASA launched a total of 94 missions (82 Space Shuttle and 12 Saturn 5) from LC-39A and to date, SpaceX launched 93 missions (81 Falcon 9 and 11 Falcon Heavy).

The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, tail number B1077 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 16th time. It previously supported the launches of three missions to the International Space Station (Crew-5, CRS-28 and Cygnus NG-20), GPS 3 Space Vehicle 06 and nine previous Starlink missions.

Nearly nine minutes after liftoff, B1077 touched down on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ This was the 85th booster landing on ASOG and the 369th booster landing to date.

Secret payload

The payload flying on the mission dubbed ‘TD7’ on SpaceX’s webpage headed to a geosynchronous transfer orbit, but timing of deployment was not disclosed prior to the launch.

A number of publications have offered speculation regarding the functionality of the Optus-X spacecraft, claiming that it is the fulfillment of a contract announced in 2022 between Northrop Grumman and SpaceLogistics for a Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) spacecraft on behalf of Optus Networks Party Limited (Optus), an Australian telecommunications company.

However, Spaceflight Now understands that Sunday’s mission is not the execution of that contract. SpaceX affirmed during its broadcast that the payload was a communications satellite.

Filings with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) state that Optus is a subsidiary of Singtel Optus Pty. Ltd., which in turn is a subsidiary of Singapore Telecom Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., which is in turn is a subsidiary of SingTel Australia Investment Ltd., a British Virgin Islands investment holding company.

The name ‘Optus-X’ was referenced by the FAA in its flight schedule and by the U.S. Space Force when making its launch weather forecast. The name also appeared in a FCC filing in late October relating to the use of an Intelsat ground station for post-launch checkouts:

“On October 28, 2024, Intelsat License LLC was granted special temporary authority for 30 days, beginning on October 28, 2024 through November 26, 2024, to operate its Ka-band antenna in Nuevo, CA, to provide launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) services to communicate with the Optus X satellite at the 29.625 GHz and 29.630 GHz (Earth-to-space) and 19.825 GHz and 19.830 GHz (space-to-Earth) center frequencies.”

In the letter requesting that special temporary authority (STA) dated Sept. 24, 2024, from W. Ray Rutngamlug, Intelsat’s Associate General Counsel, to FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch, Rutngamlug stated in a footnote that Optus X will operate at the 87.75 degrees east longitude. 

“Grant of this STA request will allow Intelsat to help launch the Optus X satellite,” Rutngamlug wrote. “This will allow Optus X to provide capacity at the nominal 88.0° E.L. location and thereby promotes the public interest.” 

Rutngamlug also confirmed Northrop Grumman’s role in the mission.

“Intelsat clarifies that during the Optus X mission, Northrop Grumman will serve as the mission manager,” he wrote. “Northrop Grumman will build and send the commands to the Intelsat antenna, which will process and execute the commands. Telemetry received by Intelsat will be forwarded to Northrop Grumman.”

A Northrop Grumman official referred questions about the mission to Optus, which has not responded to Spaceflight Now’s requests for additional information.

A company aiming to bring cell service to unmodified smartphones using a satellite network announced Thursday it had secured its ability to reach low Earth orbit.

During a third quarter earnings call, AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) revealed new launch agreements with Blue Origin, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and SpaceX. Abel Avellan, Founder, Chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, said during the call that the missions would take place over the course of 2025 and 2026.

“AST SpaceMobile has secured launch capacity to ultimately deliver continuous space-based cellular broadband service coverage in key markets, including the United States, Europe, Japan, U.S. government and other strategic markets globally,” Avellan said.

Andrew Johnson, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Legal Officer at AST SpaceMobile, said that the launches “enable us to launch up to approximately 45 Block 2 BlueBird satellites, with options for additional launch vehicles for approximately 60 Block 2 BlueBird satellites.”

“We currently expect our average costs of direct materials and launch expense per satellite for our Block 2 constellation to be in the range of $19 million to $21 million, an increase from our prior estimate of $16 million to $18 million per satellite as a result of actual launch costs recently contracted,” Johnson said.

“Despite this increase, we feel confident that we are striking the proper and responsible balance between securing ample launch capacity and the desired timeline to augment our efforts to achieve continuous coverage in key markets.”

In September, AST SpaceMobile launched five Block 1 BlueBird satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The company said those satellites have finished unfolding into their operational configuration and are preparing to go into beta service soon.

“The abiliity to successfully unfold these largest ever satellites is rooted in our innovative design and our 95 percent vertical integration strategy, which is supported by our deep and extensive portfolio of patents in the field of direct-to-device, a market that we pioneer and invented with our Block 1 BlueBirds in orbit,” Avellan said.

“We’re now moving forward with the ongoing integration with our partner networks in the United States. We also filed our special temporary authority request with the FCC. Although we plan to begin beta services in the United States for AT&T and Verizon, our partners will have the full capabilities of our satellites on a non-continued basis across all United States and other key markets globally.”

Watch the unfolding of the largest-ever commercial communication arrays in low Earth orbit, BlueBirds 1-5. Getting ready to operate and provide commercial services! #5G @ATT @Verizon @Google @Bell @RakutenGroup @VodafoneGroup #AmericanTower #Innovation #Connectivity… pic.twitter.com/7XSCa1PZsD

— AST SpaceMobile (@AST_SpaceMobile) October 31, 2024

AST SpaceMobile said its Block 2 constellation will be capable of delivering “peak data transmission speeds up to 120Mbps, supporting voice, full data, and video applications.” These next-generation satellites are also notably bigger than their predecessors.

“The satellites in orbit and Blue Walker 3 are the Block 1 size, so 8 meter by 8 meter arrays. The next size is a 2,400-square-feet array, which is roughly three-and-a-half times bigger than the Block 1. It is what we’re launching going forward,” Avellan said.

Avellan said their next launch will be using IRSO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). From there, he said they will shift their focus to launching with Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which are capable of carrying eight and four Block 2 BlueBird satellites, respectively.

New Glenn taking stage

The announcement was a nod of approval for Blue Origin and its New Glenn rocket, which is working towards its inaugural launch. Blue Origin affirmed in its own press release that “New Glenn’s first launch is on track for this year.”

“Blue Origin’s launch vehicle, New Glenn, offers a seven-meter, enabling twice the payload volume of five-meter class commercial launch systems and is well-suited to launch up to eight of the largest ever Block 2 satellites,” Avellan said.

“It’s an honor to support AST SpaceMobile’s deployment of their next generation BlueBird satellites, which will expand connectivity across the globe and positively impact many lives,” said Dave Limp, CEO, Blue Origin, in a statement. “New Glenn is purpose-built for these kinds of innovative and ambitious missions.”

Earlier this year, New Glenn was slated for its first launch in October with a mission to send a pair of spacecraft on their way to Mars for NASA. However, the rocket wasn’t ready in time and the NASA mission was delayed to early 2025.

With the change, Blue Origin said its first launch instead would feature its Blue Ring payload adaptor as the main payload, without disclosing if any customers would be flying. It said the mission, called ‘DarkSky-1’ (DS-1), was being moved up from December to November, but as of Nov. 16, a launch date has not been announced.

“The lessons learned from this DS-1 mission will provide a leap forward for Blue Ring and its ability to provide greater access to multiple orbits, bringing us closer to our vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth,” said Paul Ebertz, Senior Vice President of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems, in a statement.

After rolling its first stage, with all seven BE-4 engines integrated, to its hangar at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Blue Origin said next up would be an integrated rocket static fire test at the pad. The first and second stages of the 320-foot-tall (98 meter) rocket were integrated on Nov. 12.

Updated: SpaceX confirmed deployment of the Starlink satellites.

SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as the Sun rose over Florida’s Space Coast.

The Starlink 6-68 mission added 24 more Starlink V2 Mini satellites to the rapidly expanding satellite internet constellation in low Earth orbit. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was set for 5:45 a.m. EST (1045 UTC), but SpaceX didn’t begin fueling its Falcon 9 rocket in support of that launch time. Instead, liftoff happened at 8:21 a.m. EST (1321 UTC).

Coming into this launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron said there should be an 85 percent chance of favorable weather at liftoff. Meteorologists are tracking cumulus clouds and thick clouds as potential watch items.

“A front will approach the Spaceport from the north on Thursday, with conditions trending drier and only a small possibility of an isolated shower Thursday morning,” launch weather officers wrote. “High pressure across the Northeast and the approaching front will create breezy conditions Thursday, with gusts around 20 mph possible. Additionally, a layer of mid-level clouds may linger across the area Thursday morning.”

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1076 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for an 18th time. It’s previous flights included Ovzon-3, Intelsat 40e, CRS-26 and nine Starlink satellites.

Less than eight minutes after liftoff, B1076 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This marked the 97th booster landing on JRTI and the 368th booster landing to date.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with another 20 Starlink satellites from California Wednesday night.

The Starlink 9-11 mission will feature 13 satellites that include Direct to Cell capabilities. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) from Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 9:23 p.m. PST (12:23 a.m. EST, 0523 UTC ).

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1082 in the SpaceX fleet, will launch for an eighth time. It previously launched USSF-62, OneWeb 4 and five Starlink missions.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ This was the 108th landing on OCISLY and the 367th booster landing to date.

Following a pair of launches on Monday, Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, said the company has 26 more launches on its manifest before the end of the year. The Starlink 9-11 mission is set to be followed by the Starlink 6-68 mission, which may launch as soon as roughly six hours later.

Happy Veterans Day Double Header!!! Thank you to all who have served.

26 launches remain with 50 days to go in 2024. #grit https://t.co/idjwhD7mFL

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) November 11, 2024

SpaceX is also close to completing its primary, initial Direct to Cell constellation within the larger Starlink landscape. Following the Starlink 9-11 mission, Ben Longmier, SpaceX’s senior director of satellite engineering, said there will be three more launches to round out the constellation.

That would amount to 39 more DTC Starlink satellites, assuming SpaceX continues to launch them in batches of 13.

Update 11:19 a.m. EST: SpaceX adjusted the T-0 liftoff time.

Update 1:03 p.m. EST: SpaceX confirms deployment of Koreasat-6A.

SpaceX launched the latest communications satellite for KT SAT Corporation Ltd., a satellite service provider in South Korea Monday in the noontime hour. The Falcon 9 rocket was the first of what could shaped up to be a double launch day.

Liftoff of the Koreasat-6A mission happened at 12:22 p.m. EST (1722 UTC) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. A Starlink delivery mission, postponed from Sunday, is scheduled to fly from pad 40 at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, four hours later.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, tail number B1067 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 23rd time. It previously supported the launches of two astronaut missions to the International Space Station (Crew-3 and Crew-4), two cargo flights to the ISS (CRS-22 and CRS-25) and 12 Starlink missions.

A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1067 touched down at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The successful landing marked the 47th booster recovery at LZ-1 and the 365th booster landing to date.

Notably, this  also marked the first time a booster landed for a 23rd time. The other two boosters that launched for a 23rd time, B1061 and B1062, were taken out of service.

B1061 was intentionally expended following the launch of the Hera spacecraft on Oct. 7, 2024, for the European Space Agency. B1062 was lost when it failed to safely land on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ following the launch of the Starlink 8-6 mission on Aug. 28, 2024.

The geostationary Koreasat-6A satellite onboard Monday’s planned launch is designed to replace its predecessor, Koreasat-6, which is in the 116 degrees East position for KT SAT. The former satellite was launched by Arianespace in December 2010 and operates as a Ku-Band satellite.

Koreasat-6A, which was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space is built on the company’s Spacebus 4000B2 platform and includes six broadcast satellite service (BSS) transponders and 20 fixed satellite service (FSS) transponders. The 3.5-metric-ton satellite is designed to operate for 15 years.