Vivid Headlines

SpaceX, NASA targeting Sunday-Monday rocket launch doubleheader from Cape Canaveral

By Treasure Coast

SpaceX, NASA targeting Sunday-Monday rocket launch doubleheader from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX is targeting a Sunday-Monday rocket launch doubleheader from Florida's Space Coast, with plans to lift Starlink satellites and International Space Station supplies up into low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX's 230-foot-tall, two-stage Falcon 9 rockets will power both missions.

Sunday's Starlink launch window lasts from 4:57-9:28 p.m. EST at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows. No target liftoff time has been announced yet.

The company notched its milestone 200th Starlink mission with Wednesday afternoon's liftoff from the Cape. That sum includes launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

"(I) remember when this was still just an idea -- and now Starlink is connecting people all over the world and providing emergency communication and support for those in need," SpaceX webcast host Jessie Anderson said in a Wednesday night tweet.

"And we just barely have gotten started. Can't wait to see how Starlink continues to positively change the world!" Anderson said.

Then Monday night, NASA and SpaceX will launch the CRS-31 resupply mission to the ISS at 9:29 p.m. from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. An uncrewed SpaceX Dragon capsule is loaded with nearly 6,000 pounds of science investigations, supplies and equipment.

FLORIDA TODAY Space Team live coverage of each mission will start about 90 minutes before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space.

Aboard the ISS, four crew members will undock the Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft and move it to a different docking port on Sunday morning ahead of the CRS-31 Dragon's arrival. NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will join Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on that undertaking.

The CRS-31 Dragon is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, NASA reported.

The ISSNational Laboratory is highlighting groundbreaking scientific experiments en route to the orbiting outpost, including projects that will study:

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at [email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

Previous articleNext article

POPULAR CATEGORY

entertainment

12595

discovery

5687

multipurpose

13225

athletics

13108