SpaceX is targeting Thursday, February 2 at 2:43 a.m. ET (7:43 UTC) for a Falcon 9 launch of 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If needed, there are additional launch opportunities the same day at 4:24 a.m. ET (9:24 UTC), and 6:05 a.m. ET (11:05 UTC) with backup opportunities also available on Friday, February 3 at 2:18 a.m. ET (7:18 UTC), 3:59 a.m. ET (8:59 UTC), and 5:40 a.m. ET (10:40 UTC).The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff.
Targeting Thursday, February 2 at 2:43 a.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from LC-39A in Florida →
Multi-purpose SpaceX support ship Bob is underway and heading downrange to support the Starlink 5-3 mission.
Interestingly, the Starlink mission on Thursday will not have 56 satellites like last week's Starlink launch.Same target orbit but different number of satellites kinda implies SpaceX is fine-tuning these launches to fit the deployment of these satellites into their constellation arrangement plans.Looking at the timeline, the Starlinks separate well over an hour after launch. This makes it feel like there might something more on this mission than what SpaceX is saying. That or they're doing some weird stuff in orbit before satellite deployment
Upcoming 4th #Starlink launch of this year via #SpaceX's #Falcon9 vehicle#Space
Booster supporting this mission
F9/Starlink 5-3: Falcon 9 is going vertical at KSC pad 39A; launch of 53 Starlinks scheduled for Thursday at 2:43am EST (0743 UTC); weather >90% go
CelesTrak has pre-launch SupGP data for the #Starlink Group 5-3 launch scheduled for 2023-02-02 at 07:58:20 UTC. Deployment of 53 satellites is set for 09:02:21.100 UTC. You can find the latest data at: https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/supplemental/table.php?FILE=starlink-g5-3.
Starlink Group 5-3 launch tomorrow from KSC; the launch sequence at spacex.com shows a single stage 2 burn with SECO-1 at T+8min, followed by deploy at T+1 hour - the latter timing usually implies 2 upper stage burns: is this an error in the website @SpaceX?
Yeah it's a weird thing. Even if they injected the satellites directly into the 325x343km orbit, it still would be weird that the satellites wouldn't deploy until T+1h.
Now targeting 2:58 a.m. ET for this morning's Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites
The link to the SpaceX livestream is giving this error message: "This video isn't available anymore".
SpaceX Falcon 9 B1069-5 launch of Starlink 5-3 from KSC 39A.Overview:https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/02/starlink-group-2-6-and-5-3/Livestream:youtube.com/watch?v=z4lkiy…
