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SpaceX is heading in the right direction to launch its 250th mission from SLC-40 in Florida this week. The corporate has three Starlink missions deliberate within the coming days and continues to achieve new milestones. SpaceX has now exceeded 250 devoted Starlink launches, which it reached throughout final week’s Starlink Group 12-23 mission.
The corporate additionally continues to push the boundaries of its Falcon 9 automobile, launching a report 29 Starlink satellites on Sunday, Might 4th. This mission additionally marked SpaceX’s fiftieth mission of the yr and the a hundredth profitable consecutive Falcon 9 touchdown for the reason that final touchdown failure, with booster B1078 turning into the ninth booster within the fleet to achieve 20 flights.
Whereas SpaceX will proceed to dominate the launch manifest, different firms, companies, and nations are persevering with to fly, together with China. The primary launch try of the week, a Chang Zheng 12A, was scrubbed early on Monday, Might 5. This mission could also be rescheduled for later this week, however the motive for the scrub has not been formally declared. Onboard was the fourth batch of Xingwang satellites for the Guowang community — one among two megaconstellations China hopes to rival Starlink sooner or later.
Final month’s launch manifest made it the busiest April in historical past, with 26 rockets launching worldwide. The ultimate six missions additionally set a brand new world launch report, with six launches carried out inside 18 hours between April 28 and 29. This tempo is anticipated to proceed all through Might, with extra Starlink missions, crew launches, and extra on the schedule.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-93
The primary Starlink mission of the week is anticipated to launch from Area Launch Advanced 40 (SLC-40) on the Cape Canaveral Area Power Station in Florida on Tuesday, Might 6. The four-hour launch window opens at 8:22 PM EDT (00:22 UTC on Might 7).
SpaceX continues to regularly enhance the variety of satellites Falcon 9 can carry with this mission. A batch of 28 Starlink v2 Mini satellites might be onboard this flight, marking the fourth time a Falcon 9 has launched 28 satellites. Every of those missions flew to the Group 6 shell of the constellation. This would be the 77th mission to ship Starlink satellites into the constellation’s largest shell, Group 6, which noticed its first launch in February 2023. The Group 6-1 mission lofted the primary batch of v2 Mini satellites, providing 4 occasions the bandwidth of its v1 and v1.5 predecessors.
Falcon 9 will fly on a southeasterly trajectory following liftoff. Contemporary from final month’s Fram2 mission, Booster B1085 might be taking its seventh flight. It’s anticipated to land on SpaceX’s autonomous droneship Simply Learn The Directions, which might be positioned downrange within the Atlantic Ocean. This booster additionally launched the Crew-9 mission final yr and this January’s Blue Ghost and Hakuto-R M2 mission. It has additionally lofted GPS III and two different batches of Starlink satellites into orbit.
Starlink 6-84
A relaxed, early morning at KSC shattered by 9 raging Merlin 1D’s and a report 29 Starlink V2 mini’s off to LEO.
Might the 4th be with you.
📸 – @NASASpaceflight
📺 – https://t.co/2HkyCSug4P pic.twitter.com/YL0do9evad
— Max Evans (@_mgde_) Might 4, 2025
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-91
One other Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from Florida on Friday, Might 9, with the four-hour launch window opening at 2:54 AM EDT (06:54 UTC). If schedules maintain, this mission is anticipated to be the 250th Falcon launch from SLC-40.
Final week marked 20 years for the reason that final Titan rocket launch from SLC-40, carrying the NROL-16 mission to orbit on April 30, 2005. The pad underwent 5 years of in depth transformation for the Falcon 9 v1.0 automobile earlier than its maiden flight lifted off in June of 2010. Since that first Falcon 9 flight, SLC-40 has been probably the most energetic launch advanced on this planet. The pad just lately surpassed its three hundredth orbital launch with the Bandwagon 3 mission lower than two weeks in the past, and is now set to assist its 250th Falcon mission.
Regardless of the 6-91 mission quantity, this would be the 78th Starlink mission to the Group 6 shell. The amount of Starlink v2 Mini satellites onboard is at the moment unknown, as is the id of the primary stage booster and the autonomous droneship on which it’s anticipated to land roughly eight minutes into the mission.
At the beginning of the week, SpaceX had launched over 8,400 Starlink satellites, of which almost 1,100 have deorbited. At any given time, a quantity are nonetheless transferring into their closing positions, which may take weeks. The constellation at the moment accounts for over 63% of the roughly 11,600 energetic satellites in orbit.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 15-3
The third Starlink mission for the week has been delayed from final week as a result of dangerous climate situations. Starlink Group 15-3 will liftoff from Area Launch Advanced 4 East (SLC-4E) on the Vandenberg Area Power Base in California on Friday, Might 9, at 5:00 PM PDT (00:00 UTC on Might 10).
Onboard Falcon 9 might be 26 Starlink v2 Mini satellites. Since late March, all Starlink missions from Vandenberg have carried batches of 27 satellites into different shells, apart from the Starlink Group 15-1 mission, which lofted 22 satellites into the brand new Group 15 shell in February. That is frequent when SpaceX mixes the v2 Mini and the Direct-to-Cell satellite tv for pc variants. For the reason that Direct-to-Cell Starlinks are round 20% heavier than the v2 Minis, fewer v2 Mini satellites will be carried when each variants are flown collectively.
This mission will fly on a southeasterly trajectory to put the payload into an orbit inclined at 70 levels. Booster B1081 is anticipated to land on the autonomous droneship Of Course I Nonetheless Love You, which might be stationed downrange within the Pacific Ocean. This booster has been energetic since September 2023 and is flying for the 14th time. It has beforehand supported two Transporter missions and the Crew-7 and CRS-29 missions, which each launched to the Worldwide Area Station. It has additionally lofted the EarthCARE and PACE Earth-observation satellites.
(Lead picture: Falcon 9 launches into the Florida sky. Credit score: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
