The planned back-to-back launches of three rockets from the Space Coast will push into the weekend and beyond, at least in part due to ongoing technical issues.
The new schedule for the missions – one United Launch Alliance and two SpaceX – is:
• ULA's Delta IV Heavy, a powerful rocket made of three cores, is rescheduled to fly at 2:04 a.m. Saturday, a two-day delay from its first attempt. A Thursday launch was scrubbed during the countdown due to technical problems, and the company confirmed it would need more time to resolve a ground equipment pneumatics issue.
More: NASA, SpaceX announce date for next flight of astronauts from Kennedy Space Center
Weather is 80% "go" for the Saturday attempt at Launch Complex 37. Encapsulated in the 235-foot rocket's payload fairing is NROL-44, a secretive intelligence gathering satellite operated by the National Reconnaissance Office.
If extra time is needed, teams have until 6:25 a.m. to launch Delta IV Heavy.
• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is then scheduled to launch an Argentinian communications satellite known as SAOCOM-1B no earlier than 7:19 p.m. Sunday. Launch Complex 40 will host the attempt, where weather is expected to be a less-than-ideal 40% "go" due to the threat of thunderstorms.
If it does launch, Falcon 9 will take the commercial satellite through a polar corridor, a type of north-to-south mission not launched from the Space Coast in 51 years. After liftoff, the 162-foot booster will return for an automated landing at the Cape's Landing Zone 1 and produce sonic booms on the way down.
• A second Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A is tentatively targeting no earlier than Tuesday for its mission to vault a batch of roughly 60 Starlink internet satellites to low-Earth orbit. It would fly around 9:30 a.m. and include a booster landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
More: NASA remembers Irene Long, Kennedy Space Center's first female medical chief
A weather forecast for that 12th Starlink launch is expected Saturday.
Stay tuned to floridatoday.com/space for the latest, including an up-to-date Space Coast launch calendar.
Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support his space journalism by subscribing at floridatoday.com/specialoffer/.
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