SpaceX to start its 2021 launch marketing campaign Thursday night

A space rocket is pointed toward a cloud-filled sky.

Enlarge / A Falcon 9 rocket stands able to launch the Turksat 5A mission. (credit score: SpaceX)

SpaceX will search to kick off what guarantees to be a busy yr of launches on Thursday night, when a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the Turksat 5A communications satellite tv for pc. The three.4-ton satellite tv for pc will probably be deployed right into a geostationary switch orbit.

The launch will happen from Area Launch Complicated 40 at Cape Canaveral Area Power Station in Florida. The mission has a four-hour launch window that opens at 8:28pm ET (01:28 UTC Friday), with a backup alternative a day later. The climate forecast is usually favorable, with a 70 p.c probability of “go” circumstances on Thursday.

The mission will use beforehand flown {hardware} for each the rocket’s first stage, in addition to the payload fairing. This would be the fourth flight of this booster core, which beforehand launched a GPS III satellite tv for pc for the US Area Power in June 2020 in addition to two Starlink missions for SpaceX, most lately on October 24. Every half of this mission’s payload fairings has additionally flown one earlier mission.

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