It's looking like SpaceX's last launch of the year will be Monday night just after midnight EST; more precisely at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) on Tuesday, New Year's Eve. Of course the farther west time zones will all show this as Monday, Dec. 30.
The launch will be SpaceX’s 134th Falcon flight in 2024, surpassing the company’s prior year total by 38 missions. Of this year’s 134 launches, 89 were devoted to expanding the Starlink global network (including this upcoming flight).
Tuesday's launch is also SpaceX's third Falcon 9 launch in three days, following a Starlink mission launched from California and a four-satellite launch for Astranis from the company's other Florida launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
This will also be a Starlink mission, carrying 21 Starlink satellites including 13 with direct to cell phone capability. It will be the 16th flight for the booster which previously launched Crew-6, BlueBird-1, USSF-124, mPOWER-B, and 11 Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions about 8 minutes after liftoff.
This morning's (12:00 AM local or 0500 UTC) Astranis mission is in highlight video format here.
Starlink is a remarkable achievement. There are close to 7,000 active Starlink satellites of various versions on orbit now (currently said to be "more than 6,850" - meaning six or seven more launches gets them to 7,000). At the recent pace of three launches per week, not all Starlink, they'll be at 7,000 by the end of January.
File photo of a Falcon 9 liftoff closer to sunset than midnight, from SLC-40. Image credit: SpaceX
I hate to partially disagree with you, but while the Starlink constellation is technically impressive, it has negatively impacted the astronomical community, especially the radio astronomy community.
ReplyDeleteNo problem with disagreement. I just haven't heard of this. I've heard about the visual astronomy community having issues but with the low altitudes of these satellites figured they wouldn't be visible for much of the night and the impact is changes to observing times. I just haven't heard about the radio astronomy world and I'm not aware of radio astronomy above Ku band. I guess I'm trapped in thinking of the "hydrogen alpha line" stuff.
DeleteRelevant side notes: while I haven't had a telescope outside in some years, I still have a small stable of telescopes, including optics I made myself, so I'm more familiar with the optical world. The biggest is only a 10" f5.6 Newtonian.
The early Starlink satellites were quite reflective. SpaceX has worked very hard to make each generation 'darker' and less radio astronomy intrusive.
DeleteAnd, seriously, we need to shift radio astronomy to space.
I've subscribed to Astronomy magazine and bought some other astronomy magazines for a long time. I've done some star gazing, although due to loss of night vision that's no longer safe for me. I know several amateur astronomers and a few pros because of my interest in miniatures, and they really don't like Starlink.
ReplyDeleteSide note: it looks like the Parker probe survived the perihelion with the sun:
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-confirms-parker-probe-survives-touching-sun-in-record-breaking-flyby
Interestingly, per SpaceflightNow, the Falcon 9 booster for the Astranis launch was swapped out (https://spaceflightnow.com/2024/12/29/live-coverage-spacex-to-launch-4-astranis-satellites-on-falcon-9-rocket-from-cape-canaveral/):
ReplyDelete"Following a rare pad abort on Dec. 21, SpaceX launched four satellites to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at midnight on Sunday morning. Prior to the mission moving forward, the company had to swap the first stage booster for another."
Thanks for the link to Spaceflight Now. I had heard about T=0 abort back last Saturday, but nothing after that. I'd watched the launch time moving for a few days, with the launch being delayed repeatedly until they scrubbed that night; it was always weather related. The description of the pad abort as "rare" is reasonable. I think I remember one other T=0 abort. I imagine they're taking that booster apart pretty diligently.
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