SpaceX launches Starlink for the third consecutive year [webcast]

Update: SpaceX says a Falcon 9 rocket is on its way from Starlink 4-11 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, not until (NET) on Friday, February 25 at 9:12 a.m. PT (17:12 UTC). The mission is the third of five consecutive Starlink launches scheduled for February and March 2022.

Instead of commercial missions ready to fly, SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets are currently scheduled to launch at least five groups of Starlink satellites in a row.

The line won’t break the company’s record for seven consecutive Starlink launches, but it does highlight a beneficial side effect of SpaceX’s relentless pursuit of vertical integration: the ability to create its own launch sequence. Just two full months into 2022, SpaceX has launched seven times – three times for paying customers and four times for Starlink. The company will launch at least one more batch of Starlink satellites before the end of February, for a total of eight launches in the first two months of the year.

Next, SpaceX Starlink 4-11 is scheduled to launch from California-based SLC-4E facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), no later than (NET) 9:08 a.m. PT (17:08 UTC), Friday. February 25. The drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) left Long Beach on February 22 for the mission and sailed approximately 640 kilometers (400 mi) southeast of a fortified landing area off the coast of Baja California. The Falcon 9 Booster B1063 is set to support the mission – the fourth launch overall and the first since it helped launch NASA’s asteroid-transforming DART spacecraft. In interplanetary space In November 2021.

After that, another Falcon 9 Starlink 4-9 missile was planned to be launched “mid morning” EST on Thursday, March 3rd from the Kennedy Space Center LC-39A panel. The Booster B1060 is said to support the mission and become the first stage of SpaceX that will support 11 orbital-class launches if it does so. Starlink 4-9 may be the platform’s final mission for a few weeks to give SpaceX enough time to redirect the rocket carrier/founder for the March 30 launch of the Axiom-1, which will carry four private astronauts to the International Space Station that will be sent.

Finally, SpaceX plans to launch the Starlink 4-10 NET on Tuesday, March 8 from Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). SpaceX will likely launch another Starlink mission next month, but an exact date has yet to be set. Finally, including Starlink 4-7 (February 3) and Starlink 4-8 ​​(February 21), SpaceX is on track to launch at least five Starlink missions in a row, and hopefully place about 240 satellites (about 200 gh Most Starlink lost 4-7 to a “geomagnetic storm”) into orbit in less than five weeks.

SpaceX’s record of ongoing Starlink missions – set from February to April 2021 – is a sign of no more fly-ready commercial missions than anything else, seven launches. Technically, SpaceX has already managed 12 Starlink launches between February and March, with only one commercial mission – Crew-2 – separating the group. Barring surprises, SpaceX is unlikely to reach a similar streak by 2022.

There is a chance that SpaceX will launch a batch of three O3B mPower satellites for SES next month. At the very least, SpaceX is scheduled to launch three Dragon missions over the next two months, starting with the Ax-1 NET on March 30. The Crew Dragon will launch another Crew-4 for NASA on April 15, followed by a resupply mission to Cargo Dragon 2’s CRS-25 space station on May 1. Excluding the Starlink missions, in addition to the three commercial launches that SpaceX has already completed this year, a massive 38 additional Falcon commercial launches are tentatively scheduled for the end of 2022.

SpaceX launches Starlink for the third consecutive year [webcast]