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SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, January 18 at 7:10 a.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of the GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A backup launch opportunity is available on Thursday, January 19 at 7:05 a.m. ET.

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Crew-5. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

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

They also plan to launch more Starlink satellites from California on Thursday morning. Details to follow.

Now set for 7:24 this morning. Webcast will start shortly.

Another magnificent launch and landing.

Next one is from California, now scheduled for 7:23 am Pacific time tomorrow.

👍 🇺🇸

I watched it from the beach while surf casting. The Cape is about 30 miles to the North. Awesome!

That reminds me...I think everyone should see at least one launch in person. There truly is nothing like it. And now is the time to do it. SpaceX intends to launch 100 missions this year, almost two a week. You could book a week in a VRBO on the Space Coast and witness at least one. There are places to watch them for free, but the best views are from a NASA tour bus (as BeanMan will tell you if you PM him) even if it isn't a NASA launch.

I want to see the Starship/Superheavy launch. 16 million lbs thrust. That is a beast. They are eventually going to land the boosters back at the launch tower to get it ready for a quick second launch. Awesome what SpaceX is doing. Saving millions of dollars not throwing away the boosters. Starship is supposed to be fully reusable.

The Falcon Heavy on Sunday was more visible from central Florida than the Falcon 9 this morning due to fog. A question for Rocky on why the need to return the two boosters super sonic back to the launch pad? It created a double sonic boom heard all the way to Orlando. When the boosters release, they look like they are just falling back slowly, but that rocket hits speeds like 8,000 km/h and isn’t going straight up, so I suppose those boosters are pretty far from their landing pad and need to get back here quickly.

You be livin' in my old stompin' grounds...

The boosters come back from a peak altitude of about 130 kilometers or 80 miles. That's a LONG fall. Even with the re-entry burn of the engines, the booster has been hypersonic since about a minute into flight. Drag and that burn slows it to subsonic but by then it is below about 50,000 feet. Hence the sonic boom. You never hear the boom of the ones that land on the barge, though.

The boosters that they return to solid earth for landing have to reverse their course and boost back. To do that, they flip over and relight engines to climb even higher. They fly what amounts to a giant half loop (pilots would know it as an Immelman) during which they get to that same 80 mile apogee but headed back to land. The nearly empty booster weighs about 100,000 pounds, btw and is about the same size as an airliner's fuselage.

New T-0 of 7:43 a.m. PT for today's Falcon 9 launch of Starlink from California. All systems are looking good and weather is 60% favorable for liftoff. Webcast will be HERE

Another success.

The next US launch is now set for Monday at 6:00 pm Eastern. This one will be Rocket Lab's first launch from the US, out of Wallops Island, Virginia.

Second this suggestion, even though I've never seen a launch. When I was in college in Santa Barbara I took a friend to Edwards to watch the landing of the Shuttle Challenger (I think it was the first mission) and even though it took a long time to get out there and then wait for the landing, to this day it still sticks in my mind as one of the most awe inspiring things I've ever seen. Definitely worth the time and cost to see if you are even remotely interested in space. I'd love to see a SpaceX launch and booster landing, I bet that would be even more cool than watching a shuttle land.

Truly impressive what they are accomplishing by landing and reusing these boosters. That was unfathomable at the beginning of spaceflight. I think your posts are the most informative topic on the 'fire. Thank you!

Remsen, I have witnessed something over 120 launches including 25 Shuttles and several landings. Every single one was awesome beyond description.