SpaceX is hoping to close out the weekend with a Falcon 9 rocket launching a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. The weather forecast on Sunday, however, is quite problematic, with meteorologists tracking storms that “may pack strong wind gusts and even small hail.”
Liftoff of the Starlink 6-80 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is currently targeted for 3:20 p.m. EDT (1920 UTC) on Sunday, March 30.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.
Launch weather officers at the 45th Weather Squadron said as compared to a slightly windy, sunny day on Saturday, the following day “takes a dramatic turn for the worse.”
The forecasters offered just a 20 percent chance of favorable conditions for launch.
“Morning showers and storms are expected to form along the Atlantic coastal waters Sunday morning,” meteorologists wrote. “Then, sea-breeze driven showers with embedded thunderstorms are expected to form across the interior Florida Sunday afternoon and push eastward toward the Spaceport by evening.
“Some of these storms may pack strong wind gusts and even small hail.”
The forecast cited concerns with cumulus clouds, anvil clouds and lightning. It also noted that the recovery weather in the part of the Atlantic Ocean where the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions’, is staged is a “moderate” risk on a scale of low-moderate-high.
In the event the launch slips to Monday, the weather improves to a 65 percent chance of favorable weather for the launch window that opens at 2:57 p.m. EDT (1857 UTC), just hours before the planned launch of the Fram2 astronaut mission to a polar orbit.
SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1080, to launch the Starlink 6-80 mission. It will be making its 17th launch after supporting four missions to the International Space Station, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid observatory and 10 previous Starlink flights.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1080 will target a landing on ‘Just Read the Instructions’. If successful, this will be the 113th booster landing on this droneship and the 424th booster landing to date.
On board the rocket are 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, which represents the largest batch of this type of satellite to fly on one mission. The previous record was 27 satellites on the Starlink 11-8 and Starlink 11-7 missions.
In its 2024 progress report, the company said the Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites include a Doppio Dualband antenna along with “upgraded avionics, propulsion, and power systems, and are mass optimized for Falcon 9 to allow up to 29 satellites to launch on each mission – six more satellites per launch than the original V2 Mini design.” With this upcoming launch, SpaceX will be close to reaching that goal. Much larger Starlink V3 satellites will debut once the company’s 400-foot-tall Starship rocket is capable of sending payloads to orbit.
