Monday is the day most of us get back to work, and SpaceX is no exception: the company plans to launch a Falcon 9 carrying 23 more Starlink v2 Mini satellites to orbit early this evening from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch window extends from 5:00 PM – 9:31 PM EDT.

Tonight’s launch will be the 175th Falcon 9 launch from SLC-40, and the 260th overall from the venerable launch pad, which opened for business in 1965.

Weather

The 45th Weather Squadron has issued a forecast for today’s launch, and according to them, there is less than a 5% Probability of Violation for weather conditions. That means the chances of acceptable weather are greater than 95%:

Trajectory

Launch trajectory will be southeastward. So far, all Group 6 Starlink missions have taken this path.

Landing

The Falcon 9 first stage will attempt to land on the Automated Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) ‘A Shortfall Of Gravitas’, which will be located in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of the Bahamas.

After landing, ‘A Shortfall Of Gravitas’ will return to Port Canaveral, and the booster will be offloaded and returned to SpaceX’s Hangar X facility at Kennedy Space Center for inspection, refurbishment and possible reuse for a future launch.

Booster

SpaceX has not yet announced the booster that will be used for this mission. We will add the pertinent data here as it becomes available.

Online Viewing

A live webcast of this mission will begin on SpaceX’s X account feed about five minutes prior to liftoff. 
Watch live on X.

SpaceX’s official web page has links to live coverage as well as up-to-date planned launch times. Starlink 6-44 Mission Page.

Spaceflight Now will begin its live launch feed one hour prior to liftoff.
SFN on Youtube.

Launch Viewing: In Person

This evening’s planned launch is from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, which means that the best direct views of liftoff are: Banana River Bridge on FL-528 W near Port Canaveral, or the  southern parks on US-1 / S. Washington Avenue in Titusville. Kennedy Point Park and,Rotary Riverview Park (among others) are your best bets.

Cocoa Beach, Cocoa Beach Pier, Jetty Park Pier will have indirect views, meaning that liftoff will not be visible, but after the rocket clears the pad and any ground obstructions, you will be able to see Falcon 9 ascending clearly assuming there are no clouds between you and the rocket.

Being that the launch is early evening, if you plan to attend in person, don’t forget mosquito spray.