With a delay of a few days, SpaceX Falcon 9 B1049 successfully landed on the Path 39A of the Kennedy Space Center with the static dismantling – it will be the company’s second eight-flight booster as early as 06:19 EST (11 : 19 UTC).
Originally scheduled to take place on Friday 29 January, the static fire test of Falcon 9 B1049 was delayed for unknown reasons and then postponed to the 30th late in the countdown before SpaceX was able to complete the test on Sunday afternoon. Awaiting official confirmation that the test results were positive, B1049 would now be on track to launch SpaceX’s 17th series of Starlink v1.0 satellites (and overall 18th dedicated Starlink mission) this Tuesday.
Towed by tug Finn Falgout, drone Just Read The Instructies (JRTI) is on its way to a landing zone about 630 km (390 mi) northeast of Cape Canaveral to a partially demolished room (the loop visible below). The ships must arrive on site within the next ~ 24 hours to support Falcon 9 B1049’s eighth landing attempt.
At the same time, tugboat Lauren Foss left Port Canaveral on January 30 with the drone Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) on tow, en route to a recovery zone more or less identical to JRTI’s destination. OCISLY is scheduled to support Falcon 9 Booster B1059’s sixth launch and landing no earlier than (NET) 1:19 PM EST (06:19 UTC), February 4, delivering Starlink-18 as little as 42 hours after Starlink-17 om.
Stay tuned for updates as SpaceX prepares for an extraordinarily busy first week of February.
