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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – SpaceX is gearing up for a potential double launch launch this weekend. The California-based spaceflight company will attempt to launch two rockets from two different coasts in just over 24 hours.
On Saturday (November 21), the private spaceflight company will launch an Earth observation satellite for NASA, followed by a batch of Starlink satellites on Sunday (November 22) and you can watch the action online.
The Sentinel-6 mission is expected to take off at 12:17 pm EST (9:17 local time and 1717 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on a five-year mission to map sea rise associated with global warming. you can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
If all goes as planned, about 24 hours later, another Falcon 9 rocket will take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here in Florida. The flight is scheduled to take off at 9:56 PM EST (0256 GMT on November 23) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carries a full stack of 60 Starlink satellites.
you can watch the launch live here and on the Space.com home page, courtesy of SpaceX, or you can watch the launch directly from SpaceX here about 15 minutes before take-off.
Related: See the evolution of SpaceX rockets in pictures
SpaceX has already had a bumper year as the private spaceflight company has now launched two different astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in the past six months, marking the first time a commercial company has done so.
With these two launches, the company will celebrate its busiest launch year, breaking the 2018 record of 21 launches. The flights will also mark the 99th and 100th flights of a Falcon 9 rocket. Last month, the California-based aerospace company hit the 100th anniversary milestone of 100 flights for its Falcon rocket series, which also included the Falcon 1 and the Falcon Heavy. The company has released a file video highlighting this result.
It will also bring the landing count to 67, if both rockets land as expected. Earlier this year, SpaceX moved its former West Coast-based drone ship “Just Read Instructions” to the East Coast, joining “Of course I still love you”. The company has kept both ships quite busy this year as it has established a rapid pace of launch.
Therefore, the Sentinel-6 mission to be launched from Vandenberg will land on a landing pad on the ground, adjacent to where it was launched. The company will then begin the inspection process and bring the booster back into the launch rotation.
Currently, the time is 80% for the launch opportunity on Saturday, but NASA has a backup launch time on Sunday at 12:04 EST (9:04 local time and 1704 GMT). Starlink’s launch on Sunday also has favorable weather conditions, with the 45th Space Wing slated to 70% chance good weather Sunday evening. The only cause for concern are take-off winds and cumulus clouds.
Originally, SpaceX had planned to perform a true double launch launch by launching two missions from two shores on the same day. However, when the company moved its Starlink booster to the pre-launch testing pad, the company appears to have stopped testing and instead chose to move the launch to Sunday evening.
During a preliminary briefing for the Sentinel-6 mission, SpaceX said the company was focusing on launching in California and if it managed to take off on Saturday, it would turn its attention to Starlink on Sunday.
“We will prioritize the Sentinel six mission accordingly,” SpaceX’s Julianna Scheiman said during a pre-launch briefing on Friday, November 20. “And if necessary, we will hold the launch of Starlink. Right now, the launch of Starlink is scheduled for Sunday after our Sentinel-6 Launch.”
If all goes as planned and the launch is capable of flying on Sunday, it will mark the sixteenth batch of Starlink satellites launched into space.
SpaceX hopes to provide high-speed Internet access to users around the world through its thriving Starlink megaconstellation. Using a small terminal (no bigger than a laptop), users on the ground will be able to connect to the ever-growing network. That network is now in a public beta test phase and could be rolling out to the public later this year.
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation is launched in photos
SpaceX is expected to continue its tradition of recovering the Falcon 9 payload fairing, or nose cone, during Sunday’s flight. The company has two netted boats – called GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief – that use capture fairings as they fall back to Earth in two pieces.
Each piece of the clamshell hardware, which costs around $ 6 million together, comes with software that guides it to the recovery zone and a parachute system that allows them to land smoothly in the ocean or GO’s tense net. Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief.
The boats are also capable of lifting the hulls out of the water as catching in mid-air is complicated and depends on several factors, such as weather and wind. It is still unclear which of the fairing catchers will be used in Sunday’s Starlink mission.
Since there are no fairings on the west coast, SpaceX has deployed a different recovery ship – called the NRC Quest – in the Pacific that will fish the Sentinel-6 hulls out of the water for possible reuse.
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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