SpaceX has three launches scheduled for Valentine's day in the CONUS.
Screen capture from
Next Spaceflight.
Space.com has the rundown.
Of course the one on the left is the IM-1 launch we talked about yesterday. The important part that I looked for but couldn't find to include yesterday is that you can watch it online, with a NASA webcast that will begin at 12:15 a.m. EST (0515 GMT).
SpaceX will follow the IM-1 moon flight with the launch of USSF-124, a classified payload for the U.S. Space Force. That mission is scheduled to lift off at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT) atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX is expected to provide a livestream of the military space launch beginning 10 to 15 minutes before liftoff, but the company may cut off the stream shortly after liftoff at its customer's request as has been done in the past for classified missions. You can watch that USSF-124 launch at SpaceX's page on X (formerly Twitter).
Space.com goes on to discuss a Russian launch set for Valentine's Day as well,
but doesn't mention the third SpaceX launch of the day, this one from
Vandenberg Space Force Base, SLC-4E at 7:30 PM EST or 4:30 PM by Vandenberg's
clock. I'll return to the Russian launch in a minute.
That's a Starlink launch, which SpaceX has said they'd like to become boring but they still cover those at the previously mentioned page on X. Coverage typically starts closer to the launch time on these, the 10 to 15 minutes ahead quoted for the USSF-124 is probably right. Narration is pretty much not done for Starlink launches, although some of the alternative coverage sites that show up on YouTube add their own. It seems having cameras stationed on Vandenberg is more challenging then having them at Cape Canaveral or the Kennedy Space Center. Starbase Boca Chica is probably the most tolerant of the various cameras.
The Russian (Roscosmos) launch is the launch of a Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station from Site 31/6 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The time on this one is 10:25 PM EST on Valentine's Day, which makes it 0325 UTC on the 15th. Being on the 15th means it's not a Valentine's Day launch to me, but I include it because Space.Com did.
My only hesitation here is that stories like this don't tend to always happen, because anything that causes a reschedule of any one of the three breaks the "X launches in Y days" story.
Sorry, this is already verbungled:
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"It's not trivial to load the liquid oxygen and liquid methane into the vehicle," said Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability for SpaceX.
The company had to modify the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket to add propellants onto the Nova C lander at the launch pad shortly before liftoff. SpaceX and Intuitive Machines completed two tests of this new procedure over the weekend. It's a complex process, and during the countdown, SpaceX actually controls six valves on the lunar lander to ensure the integrity of the fueling process. Despite the tests, a non-nominal methane temperature reading observed late Tuesday night scrubbed the first launch attempt a couple of hours before the planned liftoff early Wednesday.
Thanks for posting that, Malatrope. Good background.
DeleteI thought I jinxed them with my last paragraph ;-)
Of course you did! You didn't think this was science or anything, right? ;-)
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