Monday, December 3, 2018

SpaceX Shifts Satellite Launch Mission To Later Today

Hawthorne-based SpaceX shifts its planned launch for Sunday to today, Monday, saying it is now looking to launch the Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning. SpaceX said the launch window for the mission opens at 10:32 a.m. PST, and closes at 11:00 a.m. PST. SpaceX is attempting to launch 64 small satellites into space with the single mission, on a Falcon 9 which was first used to launch the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 mission into space in May of 2018, and the Merah Putih mission into space in August. Spaceflight said it expects deployments of the many satellites to occur over a period of six hours. The original launch window for the SpaceX launch from Vandenberg was last Wednesday, which was delayed due to high winds from the storm system which came through the West Coast last week.