SpaceX is preparing to launch its largest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites to date.
Onboard the Starlink 6-84 mission are 29 of what the company calls Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites, which were first publicly mentioned in the company’s 2024 Progress Report. These satellites are about 225 kg lighter than the previous versions of the Starlink V2 Mini.
Liftoff from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is targeting Sunday, May 4, at 4:53 a.m. EDT (0853 UTC). The rocket will fly in a south-easterly trajectory once it leaves the pad.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.
On Friday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 55 percent chance for favorable weather during the launch window. Meteorologists expressed concern with anvil clouds, cumulus clouds and generally thick clouds.
“On Saturday, southerly flow will significantly increase moisture over the Florida peninsula out ahead of the approaching front,” launch weather officers wrote. “Although the boundary will not reach the area until well after the launch window, westerly winds aloft will likely bring in mid to upper-level clouds that develop along the front.”
SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number 1078, to launch the Starlink 6-84 mission. It previously launched NASA’s Crew-6, USSF-124, Bluebird 1-5 and 15 other batches of Starlink satellites.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1078 will target a landing on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’ If successful, this will be the 107th landing on that droneship and the 442nd booster landing to date.
