Overview
- SpaceX planned a Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral for early Thursday carrying 29 Starlink broadband satellites with liftoff set for 5:25 a.m. EDT.
- The mission would mark the 36th flight for booster B1067, which first flew in June 2021 and has carried crewed missions, cargo runs and many Starlink batches.
- SpaceX planned the first-stage recovery on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas about 8 to 8.5 minutes after liftoff with a successful landing counting as the vessel's roughly 160th and the company's roughly 635th booster recovery.
- The 45th Weather Squadron forecasted about a 90 percent chance of favorable weather for the launch while noting a small risk from cumulus clouds and a light southwesterly wind pattern.
- The flight is part of a rapid launch tempo that will be about SpaceX's 80th Falcon 9 mission of the year and supports a Starlink constellation that tracker Jonathan McDowell put at more than 10,700 active satellites.