Spacex Launch Today: Falcon 9 delivers 29 Starlink satellites, booster B1078 returns to droneship
spacex launch today culminated in the confirmed deployment of 29 Starlink satellites, SpaceX said Mar. 1 at 11: 03 p. m. EST (0403 UTC), marking the company’s return to north-easterly trajectories and the start of March’s launch ops.
Night liftoff from Cape Canaveral
The Falcon 9 for the Starlink 10-41 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 9: 56: 40 p. m. EST (0256: 40 UTC). The flight was cataloged as the company’s 22nd mission of the year supporting its broadband internet satellite constellation and represented a return to a north-easterly departure after a run of mostly south-easterly trajectories over the better part of four months.
Spacex Launch Today: booster landing and reusability milestones
The first stage with tail number 1078 — on its 26th flight after missions including Crew-6, Nusantara Lima and USSF-124 — returned less than 8. 5 minutes after liftoff and landed on the droneship Just Read the Instructions, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. That touchdown was the 152nd landing on that vessel and the 580th booster landing for the company to date.
Three launches closed February, adding 83 satellites
Earlier in the week, Falcon 9 rockets launched on Feb. 24, 25 and 27, putting more than 80 satellites into low Earth orbit. On Feb. 24 at 6: 04 p. m. EST (2304 GMT), a Falcon 9 lifted 29 Starlink satellites from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral. On Feb. 25 at 9: 17 a. m. EST (1417 GMT or 6: 17 a. m. PST local time), a different Falcon 9 sent 25 Starlink units from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg. On Feb. 27 at 7: 16 a. m. EST (1216 GMT), a third Falcon 9 carrying 29 satellites lifted off again from SLC-40.
All three flights successfully deployed their Starlink payloads — Groups 6-110, 17-26 and 6-108. Tuesday’s booster B1092 landed on Just Read the Instructions, completing its 10th mission; Wednesday’s B1093 returned to Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific, marking its 11th flight; and Friday’s B1069 completed its 30th trip to space and back on A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. The 83 satellites pushed the megaconstellation to more than 9, 850 units in Earth orbit, satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell put the total.
Weather, payload totals and other weekend activity
The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 90 percent chance of favorable weather for the Sunday night launch window, noting only a small chance of interference from cumulus clouds. Following a separate Sunday morning launch of 25 Starlink satellites, the company had deployed a total of 566 of its satellites so far this year.
On the same weekend, an automated cargo capsule carrying nearly 5, 500 pounds of experiments and supplies began a three-day trip to the International Space Station, firing through low-hanging clouds from the same launch pad where Apollo astronauts began voyages to the moon. NASA has released new target dates for test flights of commercial crew capsules in development by SpaceX and Boeing, with unpiloted demo missions by Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner now scheduled for January and March, followed by crewed orbital missions in mid-2019.
