Update: 8:30 p.m. EDT: SpaceX has canceled the mission due to bad weather and is now planning on launching it on Friday.
SpaceX canceled Thursday night’s Falcon 9 launch due to continuing bad weather, as central and southern Florida is being hit by a series of thunderstorms and heavy tropical rain that is expected to continue for several days.
The launch of the Starlink 10-2 mission is scheduled for 4:35 pm EDT (2035 UTC) on Friday. The Falcon 9 rocket will carry 22 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit on the 44th dedicated Starlink mission this year.
The mission will mark the company’s 61st Falcon 9 flight of 2024, matching the total number of orbital launches it completed in all of 2022. Spaceflight Now will provide live coverage starting approximately an hour before the launch.
Leading up to Thursday’s launch, the 45th Weather Squadron predicted about a 25 percent chance of favorable weather during the new launch window.
Meteorologists expressed concern about the possibility of anvil clouds, cumulus clouds and violations of surface electric field laws, all of which could affect the chances of lightning occurring if the rocket were to launch in less than optimal conditions.
The forecast for the 24-hour backup window shows all of the same weather concerns, except for the surface field rules. Friday’s window will start with 40 percent favorable conditions for launch, improving to 80 percent by the end of the window.
The mission was postponed from Wednesday, though SpaceX did not say why. Early Wednesday afternoon, SpaceX postponed the scheduled 5:20 PM launch until the end of the evening launch window, then ultimately canceled the mission mid-afternoon. By that point, it was clear the rocket had not been raised in its vertical launch configuration in time for liftoff and was behind schedule in its preparations.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission is SpaceX’s B1073, which will mark its 16th launch. The booster previously supported the launch of ispace’s HAKUTO-R lunar lander, the Bandwagon-1 rideshare mission, and 10 previous Starlink missions.
A little over eight minutes after launch, B1073 is scheduled to land on SpaceX’s Just Read the Directions drone, marking the 84th landing on the drone and the 319th booster landing to date.
The mission comes at a busy time for SpaceX and NASA: This week, the companies, along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other federal agencies, will be holding a series of in-person meetings to inform the public and get feedback on SpaceX’s proposal to launch Starship missions from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX also recently shipped the final two tower segments and chopstick arms for the second Starship tower bound for the Starbase facility in South Texas.