SpaceX Targeting Starlink + Ride-Share Launch SAT June 13 at 0521 EDT (0921 UTC)

martyb writes:

SpaceX goes for its third launch in two weeks early on Saturday:

Early on Saturday morning, SpaceX will go for its third launch in two weeks with another Starlink mission into low Earth orbit. This will bring the total number of Starlink Internet satellites launched to date to nearly 540.

[...] The launch of the Starlink-8 mission is scheduled for 5:21am ET (09:21 UTC) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

[...] The company appears to be accelerating its cadence of launches after the Crew Dragon mission, which necessitated extra preparation due to the fact that it involved launching humans. It's possible that SpaceX will complete three more launches this month: this one, another Starlink flight, and the launch of a GPS III satellite for the US Space Force.

[...] This will be the first time SpaceX has flown a Starlink mission with other payloads attached, and it's the first of the company's SmallSat Rideshare Program launches. The company will remove two Starlink satellites from its normal stack inside the payload fairing-bringing the total down to 58-to accommodate the launch of three SkySat imaging satellites for Planet.

[...] This will be the third flight for this Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, having previously flown two Cargo Dragon resupply missions for NASA. The Of Course I Still Love You droneship will attempt to catch the rocket as it returns to Earth.

It is notable that SpaceX did not conduct a static fire of the first stage before this attempt.

The launch is scheduled for 5 hours after this story goes "live".

There will be a YouTube live stream of the launch. The stream typically starts 15-20 minutes before launch. From the description on the video page:

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