SpaceX will try to launch more rockets in 2021 than ever before.
SpaceX
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, begins the new year with the launch of a new communications satellite into space for the country Turkey.
Turksat 5A is the first of several next-generation broadcast birds that will orbit SpaceX as fast as Thursday night from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX has not officially confirmed the mission, but the closure of airspace and weather bulletins indicates it is on schedule with a backup window about 24 hours later.
The satellite is expected to take a ride on a first-stage Falcon 9 booster that will follow its fourth flight, shortly thereafter through its fourth landing, this time on the droneship Just Read The Instructies parked in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be a relatively routine mission for SpaceX, but a night glow from the shore of space is always a spectacular sight.
The Falcon 9 is currently somewhere in a four-hour window starting at 17:28 PT (20:28 local ET). The weather forecast for Thursday evening is 60% favorable and the following evening 80% favorable.
SpaceX will live the mission, which we will include here, as soon as it becomes available.
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