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SpaceX is targeting Monday evening for a Falcon 9 launch of 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 7:26 p.m. EST, and a backup opportunity is available on Tuesday, January 18 at 7:04 p.m. EST.

The booster supporting this mission previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, and six Starlink missions. Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9’s first stage on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Each of Falcon 9’s fairing halves previously supported one Starlink mission.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff. Watch it HERE

With the fairings costing $6 millionish per mission, it make sense to attempt to recover them. I have not seen anything outlining their success rate on capturing them.

According to an interview with Musk last year, he stated that a payload that can fly on a reused first stage is reduced by less than 40 percent and that the cost of recovery and refurbishment costs less than 10% of the initial production cost. So the promise of the reusable concept seems to be working. However, in November 2021 Musk warned that SpaceX could be facing bankruptcy once again if they cannot increase the pace of production.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/30/elo...ptor-engine-crisis-risks-bankruptcy.html

They do seem to be pissing a lot of money into StarLink and Falcon Heavy. The ROI on those projects will be measured in decades.

Due to unfavorable weather forecast today, the Starlink launch is now set for Tuesday at 7:04 pm Eastern.

Musk is totally dependent on Starship and Starlink for his future. (Starship is not Falcon Heavy. I'm sure that was just a mental lapse.) He recently went ballistic to learn that Raptor engine production (for Starship) was in a shambles. And the FAA continues to kick him in the groin by not issuing launch permits for Starship.

They're working doubletime to pick up Raptor production, and are well into developing Raptor V2.0 which is a simpler and cheaper engine to make, yet even more powerful.

Assuming they overcome the Raptor problem and the FAA bottleneck, they still have a major stumbling block in sourcing fresh water for launch deluge at the Texas launch site. They may have to build giant desalinization plants to get enough.

Starlink has to fund ALL of this if they stop using Falcon rockets. And Starlink depends on regulatory approval internationally to get a large enough user base. That's also proving contentious.

Yep Starship... not Falcon Heavy.

I had not heard about the water issue at the Texas facility.

It hasn't been made very public. But the launch site is as far south as you can go in Texas, and it is between a river and an inlet. It is practically an island. There is little to no fresh water available there and for corrosion reasons they cannot use saltwater in the launch sound suppression system. They'll need in excess of a million gallons per launch, and Musk plans to launch from there up to several times a week. Can't be done with the freshwater supply that's in place or planned.

Several times/week? Wow, the lad might need fitting for a leash.

I've had my order in with Starlink since Feb 2021. I still have not received the equipment. I realize this isn't their primary business model. I didn't realize they were that far behind.

New T-0 of 9:02 p.m. ET for tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites.