A previously flown Falcon 9 rocket tasked with launching SpaceX’s next mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was successfully test fired Thursday afternoon, paving the way for a launch early next week.
Teams will have a two-hour window opening at 1:18 a.m. Tuesday to launch the rocket topped with a commercial communications satellite from Launch Complex 40. The Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron is expected to release a forecast this weekend.
The launch will mark the first time a Block 5 version of Falcon 9, which sports improved reusability features and more thrust, flies a second mission. The booster originally launched the Bangabandhu-1 payload from Kennedy Space Center in May.
Shortly after liftoff, the 156-foot-tall booster will perform an automated descent and target a landing on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship, which is based at Port Canaveral. The SpaceX fleet should return to port a few days later.
On board will be Merah Putih, a 12,800-pound, California-built communications spacecraft also known as Telkom-4 for PT Telkom Indonesia. Once it achieves geostationary orbit thousands of miles above Earth, it will provide communications services to the 17,000 islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
Merah Putih refers to the red and white of the Indonesian flag, according to SSL, which built the spacecraft.
Tuesday morning’s early launch – the fourth pre-dawn mission in a row – kicks off a busy month for the Space Coast, which will also see:
– NASA’s high-profile Parker Solar Probe take flight on a three-core United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 37 at 3:48 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 11. The window to launch the probe closes on Aug. 23 before it opens again next May.
– SpaceX is again expected to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape, this time with the Telstar 18 VANTAGE commercial communications satellite for Canada-based Telesat.
