(This story has been updated with new launch schedule information and comment from SES.)
SpaceX crews are gearing up for Cape Canaveral’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch on the morning of Saturday, July 26, the Space Coast Office of Tourism reported.
Saturday’s early bird 4½-hour launch window extends from 4:28 a.m. to 9:10 a.m. at Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory indicates.
This is SpaceX’s Starlink 10-26 mission. The Falcon 9 will deploy a payload of Starlink internet satellites in low-Earth orbit after ascending along a southeasterly trajectory.
The rocket will lift off two days after the historic 75th anniversary of Bumper 8, the first rocket to launch from the Cape on July 24, 1950. The two-stage Bumper 8 experimental rocket only stood 56½ feet tall — or one-fourth the height of a 229-foot Falcon 9.
SpaceX has yet to publicly confirm Saturday’s Starlink mission or announce a target launch time. FLORIDA TODAY Space Team live coverage will kick off about 90 minutes before the launch window opens at floridatoday.com/space.
No Brevard County sonic booms should occur: The rocket’s first-stage booster will target landing aboard a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
On Tuesday, July 22, SpaceX launched an afternoon Falcon 9 and lifted a pair of SES O3b mPOWER satellites into medium-Earth orbit. That mission marked the 62nd orbital rocket launch thus far this year from the Space Force installation and NASA’s neighboring Kennedy Space Center.
“Over the past year, our O3b mPOWER services have been transforming industries and empowering our key customers including telco operators, cruise lines, airlines, NATO, the Government of Luxembourg, the Government of United States and many other allied governments,” SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh said in a post-launch press release.
Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX teams continue prepping for next week’s Crew-11 liftoff from pad 39A at KSC. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov will board a SpaceX Dragon atop a Falcon 9 for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station.
The Crew-11 target launch time: 12:09 p.m. July 31.
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Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1