{"id":213535,"date":"2026-01-02T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/213535\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:52:10","slug":"spacex-gets-ready-for-floridas-first-launch-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/213535\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX gets ready for Florida\u2019s first launch of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION\u00a0\u2014 For those who can stay up late, you will be able to witness Florida\u2019s first rocket launch for 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>The Starlink 6-88 mission will be Florida&#8217;s first launch of 2026.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/sl-6-88\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SpaceX stated that its Falcon 9 rocket<\/a> will be leaving Cape Canaveral Space Force Station\u2019s Space Launch Complex 40 early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p>It will be sending up the Starlink 6-88 mission.<\/p>\n<p>The launch window opens at midnight and will close at 3:17 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/falcon9_crewdragon_launch_weather_criteria_fact_sheet.pdf?emrc=6cc43d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">weather criteria for a Falcon 9 launch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The maiden launch<\/p>\n<p>This will be the first launch for B1101, the name of this Falcon 9\u2019s first-stage booster.<\/p>\n<p>After the stage separation, it will land on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be out in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/02-17-2023_SpaceX_Booster_Seperation_Landing.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"hashed-image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" width=\"100%\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\nAbout the mission<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX owns the Starlink company, which will see its 29 satellites go to low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Once deployed and in their orbit with the thousands of other Starlinks, they will provide internet service to many parts of the little round Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been documenting Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n<p>Before this launch,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/planet4589.org\/space\/con\/star\/stats.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McDowell recorded the following<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>9,395 are in orbit<br \/>\n8,157 are in operational orbit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION\u00a0\u2014 For those who can stay up late, you will be able to witness&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[129336,129334,13721,54339,100801,129335,129333,111,43,139,69,10531,147,392,47642,145,38,100802],"class_list":{"0":"post-213535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-anthony-leone","9":"tag-app-space","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-brevard-county","12":"tag-instagram-bn9","13":"tag-instagram-n13","14":"tag-new-space-race","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-orlando","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-space","22":"tag-tampa","23":"tag-technology","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-trending-topics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}