SpaceX to launch 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Space Flight Now

Update 30 Oct. at 5:37 PM EDT: SpaceX launches the Starlink 10-13 mission.

SpaceX launched its second of the day Wednesday night with another Starlink flight. This Falcon 9 rocket will add another 23 Starlink satellites to the growing mega-constellation.

The move of the Starlink 10-13 mission from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 5:10 p.m. EDT (2110 UTC).

Entering the launch opportunity on Wednesday, the 45th Weather Squadron expected conditions to be 75 percent favorable for launch. It said the primary concerns were gusty winds and cumulus clouds, noting that wind speeds were forecast to be between 20 and 28 miles per hour.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, tail number B1078 in the SpaceX fleet, was launched for the 14th time. It has previously supported launches of Crew-6, BlueBird-1, USSF-124 and nine previous Starlink missions.

A little more than eight minutes after takeoff, B1078 landed on the SpaceX drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’. This was the 83rd booster landing for ASOG and the 361st booster landing to date.

The Starlink 10-13 flight will bring the total number of Starlink satellites launched in 2024 to 1,565. Before the launch on Wednesday night and after the launch of the Starlink 9-9 mission on Wednesday morning, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and expert orbital tracker, noted that there were 6,534 Starlink satellites left in orbit.