A clear late afternoon in Florida and all is calm, despite the fact that just recently there was major destruction left after hurricane Helene tore through many states.
The launch saw no delays and got off at the beginning of its four-hour launch window at 5:10 p.m. ET. On Wednesday, October 30 at 5:10 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The weather forecast yesterday stated a 75% chance of favorable weather conditions at the time of the launch.
Booster B1078 last launched 10/30/2024 and has seen 14 successful launches and landings. Falcon 9 Block 5 booster first used for the Crew-6 mission, and previously launched mPOWER-B, BlueBird-1, Crew-6, USSF-124, and now 10 Starlink missions.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Dr. Jonathan McDowell has been recording Starlink satellites, and previous to this launch, McDowell recorded the following: 6,534 smallsats are in orbit and 6,115 are in operational orbit.
