The first launch window opens on Thursday (8/27) at 2:16 a.m. (launch was previously scheduled for Wednesday morning). United Launch Alliance will launch a Delta 4 Heavy, which features three common booster cores forming a triple-body rocket.
Then, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled later on the same day (8/27) at 7:14 p.m. A SpaceX Falcon 9 will take a unique path South past our shores on the way to the South Pole for CONAE, Argentina’s Space Agency. The SAOCOM 1B satellite requires a polar orbit, and it’s the first launch of its kind from Cape Canaveral since November 1960. This launch will also include a flyback of the booster to Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral for the first time since March 2020.
Then, on August 29, SpaceX will launch another Falcon 9, this time as the Starlink 11 mission, launching the 12th batch of approximately 60 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network. Launch dates and times are subject to change due to being postponed or scrubbed at any time.