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SpaceX launches Starlink satellite with Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

File: A Falcon 9 rocket is ready to launch a Starlink mission. Image: SpaceX

The day after three astronauts and a cosmonaut returned to Earth from the International Space Station, SpaceX is preparing for its next Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Starlink 10-8 mission will launch another group of 22 Starlink V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO). With this launch, Florida's Space Coast will also break its record for most orbital launches in a calendar year, which stood at 72 in 2023.

The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at 5:47 p.m. EDT (2147 UTC). Spaceflight Now's live broadcast begins about an hour before launch.

Shortly before the launch opportunity on Saturday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast that conditions for launch were 90 percent favorable and that dry weather would prevail in the afternoon.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, B1069 in the SpaceX fleet, will launch for the 19th time. Previously, it supported the launches of SpaceX's 24th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-24) mission to the International Space Station, OneWeb Launch #15, and 14 previous Starlink flights.

Just over eight minutes after launch, B1069 is scheduled to land on the SpaceX “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship. If successful, this would be the 95th landing on JRTI and the 359th booster landing to date.

Starlink 10-8 will also be the company's 69th dedicated Starlink launch in 2024. There were a total of 6,494 Starlink satellites in LEO as of October 25, according to astronomer and orbital tracker Jonathan McDowell.

On September 26, SpaceX announced that it had reached more than four million customers around the world. During a presentation at Starbase's launch and test facilities in April, SpaceX founder Elon Musk noted that Starlink had about 2.7 million customers. Just over a month later, it was reported that the three million threshold had been exceeded.

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