Overview
- A Falcon 9 is slated to lift off from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40 on the Starlink 6-88 mission during a 12:00–3:17 a.m. window carrying 29 satellites.
- The mission uses a first-stage booster on its inaugural flight, with a planned downrange landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic.
- Forecasters note a cold front moving through Central Florida that could affect conditions during the launch window.
- SpaceX has three more Starlink flights lined up from SLC-40 in the next 10 days, using boosters on their 29th, 25th, and 13th flights and targeting Jan. 7, Jan. 10, and Jan. 14.
- Florida’s launch calendar also features ULA advancing Vulcan’s USSF-87 mission as it works through a backlog of more than 20 national-security flights, NASA holding the Artemis II stack in the VAB for a mid-January rollout toward a no-later-than-April launch, and Blue Origin preparing New Glenn’s NG-3 to carry the Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander.