Update May 4, 5:15 a.m. EDT: SpaceX landed its first stage booster on its droneship.
SpaceX launched its largest batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites to date in a predawn Falcon 9 flight on Sunday.
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 happened Sunday, May 4, at 4:54 a.m. EDT (0854 UTC). The rocket flew in a south-easterly trajectory once it left the pad.
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 used 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 landed on the SpaceX droneship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ marking the 107th landing on that droneship and the 441st booster landing to date.
