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SpaceX is targeting its next Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday night, hours after a series of showers and thunderstorms hit the Space Coast.
In fact, the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predicts a 95% chance that weather conditions will be favorable for launch.
SpaceX announced that Starlink 6-43 is scheduled to launch at 7:05 p.m. EDT Sunday from Launch Complex 40, with backup opportunities available if needed until 11:03 p.m.
The Falcon 9 rocket will deploy another payload of 23 Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit, adding to SpaceX’s growing constellation.
After stage separation, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster will aim to land on a SpaceX spacecraft near the Bahamas. Therefore, Brevard County residents should not hear the sonic booms that accompany booster landings at the Space Force station.
The Space Coast’s latest Starlink mission lifted off Monday night amid a National Weather Service dense fog advisory for northern Brevard County. Thick fog obscured photographers’ views at the Cape, but spectators elsewhere were treated to spectacular views as the rocket ascended along its trajectory toward the southeast.
NWS forecasters predict a strong cold front will bring showers and thunderstorms Saturday night and Sunday across Brevard. However, Sunday night’s forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies, a low around 57 degrees and a northwest wind at 10 to 15 mph at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast said “conditions appear very favorable with a small chance of a cumulus cloud breach.”
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This week, the Space Force hosted a trio of public meetings to gather environmental feedback on SpaceX’s plan to convert Launch Complex 37 into a site for Starship-Super Heavy launches by 2026 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. . SpaceX is also building a full-scale Starship launch infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A complex.
Looking ahead to the Cape launch schedule, NASA’s SpaceX CRS-30 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station remains scheduled to lift off no earlier than mid-March.
No target date has been set for the mission, which will send a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to dock with the ISS via a Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 40.
For mission updates from FLORIDA TODAY’s space team ahead of Starlink 6-43’s liftoff on Sunday, visit floridatoday.com/space about 90 minutes before the launch window opens.
Rick Neal is a space reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, Click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1