Update May 28, 11:04 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed Starlink satellite deployment.
SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Wednesday morning.
The mission, dubbed Starlink 10-32, added 27 more satellites into low Earth orbit. This was SpaceX’s 420th launch of a flight-proven booster.
On Tuesday, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast an 85 percent chance for favorable weather at the beginning of the launch window. Meteorologists said that will deteriorate to 40 percent favorable by the end of the window, citing potential impacts from seasonal thunderstorms.
“High pressure ridge across the peninsula will lead to mostly clear skies during the morning hours, but with the summer pattern beginning to take shape conditions will deteriorate each afternoon,” launch weather officers wrote in their forecast. “Showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop with heating and seabreeze initiation by midday into the afternoon hours.”
SpaceX used first stage booster 1080 to launch the mission. Its previous missions included two private astronaut missions to the International Space Station, two cargo flights to the ISS and 12 previous batches of Starlink satellites.
A little more than eight minutes after liftoff, B1080 landed on the droneship, ‘Just Read the Instructions.’ This was the 122nd touchdown on this vessel and the 453rd booster landing to date.