SpaceX is making ready for its ultimate three Falcon 9 launches earlier than the top of 12 months, which can start with a Starlink mission from Vandenberg House Power Base in California.

The Starlink 11-3 mission will add one other 22 V2 Mini satellites to the megaconstellation in low Earth orbit. Liftoff from House Launch Complicated 4 East (SLC-4E) is ready for five:48 p.m. PST (8:48 p.m. EST, 0148 UTC).

Spaceflight Now could have stay protection starting about half-hour previous to liftoff.



The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, tail quantity B1075 within the SpaceX fleet, will launch for a sixteenth time. It beforehand supported the launches of Transporter-11, SARah-2 and 12 Starlink missions.

Just a little greater than eight minutes after liftoff, B1075 will landing on the droneship, ‘Of Course I Nonetheless Love You,’ which is positioned within the Pacific Ocean. If profitable, it will likely be the a hundred and fifteenth booster touchdown on OCISLY and the 388th booster touchdown thus far.

SpaceX has yet another Starlink mission scheduled earlier than closing out 2024. The Starlink 12-6 is positioned to launch from the Kennedy House Heart in Florida at midnight to start Dec. 30, barring climate or technical delays.

In between these Starlink flights, SpaceX will make one other try at launching the ‘Astranis: From One to Many’ from Cape Canaveral House Power Station. The corporate had a pad abort in the course of the Dec. 21 launch try, which prevented the launch.

With none fanfare, or rationalization on the basis reason for the problem, SpaceX determined to modify the booster getting used on the Astranis flight. It swapped out B1077 and introduced up B1083 as a replacement.

Assuming all three launches can happen earlier than New 12 months’s Day, SpaceX will shut out 2024 with a complete of 134 orbital launches utilizing its Falcon household of rockets, which is 10 shy of the corporate’s purpose set initially of the 12 months. Two of that complete had been Falcon Heavy flights with the remaining being Falcon 9 launches.

In a publish on X, previously Twitter, Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s Vice President of Launch, famous that attaining these three may even mark “a document quarter for each Falcon and SpaceX.” The corporate is on monitor to finish 41 orbital launches this quarter.

We’re now concentrating on 134 launches – two shy of our final purpose – to complete 2024 sturdy, with a launch from every pad and a document quarter for each Falcon and @SpaceX.

In the end, there is just one quantity that actually issues. ZERO failures. Our precedence is – and can stay – security…

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) December 27, 2024