Live coverage: SpaceX to launch Falcon 9 rocket on Starlink mission from Kennedy Space Center

A Falcon 9 rocket stands in launch position at Launch Complex 39A ahead of the Starlink 6-51 mission on April 17, 2024. Image: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing for its latest Falcon 9 launch from pad 39A NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Starlink 6-51 mission comes about a week-and-a-half after the launch of its first Bandwagon-1 rideshare mission from that pad.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket is set for 5:26 p.m. EDT (2126 UTC) during an approximately four hour launch window. The weather outlook is fairly ideal for the mission. The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 90 percent chance of favorable conditions at liftoff, with thick clouds near the launch pad being the only concern.

Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission beginning about one hour prior to liftoff.

Once this rocket launches, SpaceX will be one flight shy of tying the total number of Space Shuttle missions from this historic launch pad. This will be the 81st flight of a Falcon rocket compared to the 82 total shuttle flights.

After liftoff, there will be a total of 174 orbital flights from LC-39A. Nine of those were Falcon Heavy rockets with the remaining 72 being Falcon 9 rockets. There were also 11 Saturn 5 launches from this pad.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail number B1077 in the SpaceX fleet, will be launching for a 12th time. It previously supported missions like the Crew-5 flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 06 geostationary satellite and a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on the NG-20 mission to the International Space Station.

About 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1077 will touchdown on the SpaceX droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This will be the 78th booster landing for JRTI and the 298th landing for SpaceX to date. It comes just days after B1062 achieved flight leader status with 20 total launches.

The 23 Starlink satellites on board will add to the 5,809 currently on orbit, according to astronomer and expert orbital tracker, Jonathan McDowell. SpaceX launched 564 Starlink satellites so far in 2024 and this will be its 26th flight this year to add more.

Over 20 Tbps of Starlink fronthaul capacity delivered to orbit via this first stage! https://t.co/jhD0DB7wPT

— Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) April 13, 2024