SpaceX will attempt to complete its 550th successful booster landing on Saturday as part of a late-night launch from Vandenberg Space Force Station.
The Starlink 15-12 mission will add another 27 Starlink V2 minisatellites to SpaceX’s growing megaconstellation of broadband internet satellites in low Earth orbit.
The flight from Space Launch Complex 4 East is scheduled for Dec. 13, during a window that opens at 9:20 p.m. PST (Sunday, Dec. 14 at 12:20 a.m. EST/0520 UTC). Upon leaving the pad the rocket will fly on a south-easterly trajectory.
Spaceflight Now’s live coverage will begin approximately 30 minutes before liftoff.
SpaceX will launch the Starlink 15-12 mission using a Falcon 9 first stage booster with tail number 1093. This will be its ninth flight after flying two missions for the space development agency, as well as six prior Starlink missions.
Approximately 8.5 minutes after takeoff, B1093 will aim for an autonomous landing on ‘Of Course I Still Love You’, a drone ship located in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, it will be the 170th landing on this ship and the 451st landing on a drone ship for SpaceX.
