Ending with a delay of a few days, SpaceX successfully fired the Falcon 9 B1049 at Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39A – now set to become the company’s second eight-flight booster at 6:19 am EST (11:19 am UTC).
Originally scheduled to occur on Friday, January 29, the Falcon 9 B1049 static fire test was delayed for unknown reasons and then aborted at the end of the countdown on the 30th before SpaceX could complete the test on the afternoon of Sunday. Pending official confirmation that the test results were positive, the B1049 should now be on its way to launch SpaceX’s 17th batch of Starlink v1.0 satellites (and the 18th dedicated Starlink mission overall) on Tuesday.
Towed by the tug Finn Falgout, the drone ship Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) is en route to a landing zone about 630 km (390 mi) northeast of Cape Canaveral after a partially aborted departure (the loop visible below). The ships are expected to arrive on site within the next 24 hours to support the Falcon 9 B1049’s eighth landing attempt.
Simultaneously, the tug Lauren Foss left Port Canaveral with the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) in tow on January 30, towards a recovery zone more or less identical to the JRTI destination. OCISLY is scheduled to support the sixth launch and landing of the Booster Falcon 9 B1059 not before (NET) 1:19 am EST (06:19 UTC), February 4, delivering Starlink-18 in orbit just 42 hours after Starlink- 17.
Stay tuned for updates as SpaceX prepares for an unusually busy first week in February.
