Time: 2024-06-26
Welcome to FLORIDA TODAY's Space Team live coverage of todays SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch that will lift the NO weather satellite GOES-U into orbit.
It's Falcon Heavy launch day! If weather cooperates, we will see a triple-core SpaceX rocket lift the GOES-U weather satellite into orbit.
Launch time is set for 5:26 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39A. Time was adjusted to work around weather.
The Space Force 45th Weather Squadron predicts only a 30 percent chance of favorable weather conditions during the two-hour launch window. Clouds are stated to be a main concern.
A SpaceX rocket put on a show over Los Angeles after launching Sunday evening from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Santa Barbara County coast.
The exhaust plume from the Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit was illuminated against the darkening night sky by the setting sun.
The rocket and its exhaust plume are sometimes visible for hundreds of miles as it soars along the coast, if skies are clear. Launches just after sunset and before sunrise usually provide the best views as the rocket reflects the sun's rays against the backdrop of a darkened sky.
SpaceX has a Starlink constellation of satellites orbiting Earth about 340 miles up, shuttled into space by the company's rockets. The Starlink network is designed to deliver high-speed internet anywhere around the globe.
If light conditions are right, the satellites appear in a train as they parade across the night sky. The satellites are sometimes visible in the first few minutes after sundown and before sunrise when the sun is below the horizon, but the satellites are high enough to reflect direct sunlight.
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