SpaceX is planning to launch a Falcon 9 carrying the Indonesian satellite Telkomsat HTS 113BT tomorrow afternoon from Pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The first stage booster will then land offshore on Just Read The Instructions, one of the company’s Automated Spaceport Drone Ships. The launch window opens at 3:11 PM EST and extends to 5:44 PM.

This will be SpaceX’s 16th flight this year.

Payload

Owned by Indonesian companies PT Telkom (Persero) Tbk (Telkom), HTS 113BT is a high-throughput telecommunications satellite that will provide communications services in C-band/Ku-Band from its orbital position at 113° East once it reaches its final orbital destination and successfully completes it commissioning activities.

According to Thales, the company that built HTS 113BT, the satellite will “provide more than 32 Gbps capacity over Indonesia. The satellite will weigh about 4 metric tons at launch and will be delivered early 2024 for a 15-year expected lifetime.”

Endi Fitri Herlianto, CEO of Telkomsat, said in a 2021 Thales press release announcing the contract to build the satellite that “HTS 113BT will strengthening connectivity infrastructure across Indonesia archipelago to support digital business by providing better quality of service for Indonesia society.”

Weather

After weekend of three days of near-steady rains that brought as much as four inches of precipitation to the Space Coast area, the 45th Weather Squadron has forecast only a 5% chance of a Probability of Violation of launch weather criteria for tomorrow. That means that they expect a 95% chance of acceptable conditions.

Should technical issues force a delay, the weather on Wednesday is expected to be a near repeat of Tuesday’s favorable forecast.

Trajectory

Falcon 9 is planned to head nearly due east after liftoff. Just Read The Instructions, SpaceX’s landing point for this mission, will be located ~300 miles offshore.

Booster

Booster B1067 will be flying its 17th mission. It last launched 01/07/2024 and has completed 16 successful missions since its first launch in 2021

Booster 1067
Flight Number	Mission	Date
1	CRS-22	June 21, 2021
2	NASA Crew-3	November 11, 2021
3	Türksat 5B	December 19, 2021
4	NASA Crew-4	April 27, 2022
5	CRS-25	July 14, 2022
6	Starlink 4-34	September 19, 2022
7	Hotbird 13G	November 3, 2022
8	O3b mPOWER 1 & 2	December 16, 2022
9	Starlink 5-2	January 26, 2023
10	Starlink 5-5	March 24, 2023
11	Starlink 5-9	May 14, 2023
12	Satria-1	June 18, 2023
13	Starlink 6-10	August 17, 2023
14	Starlink 6-22	October 13, 2023
15	Starlink 6-29	November 22, 2023
16	Starlink 6-35	January 7, 2024

Coverage

Typically, SpaceX begins live coverage of its launches fifteen minutes before the planned liftoff on the X platform at https://twitter.com/SpaceX

Spaceflight Now typically begins its live coverage of launches from the Space Coast one hour before liftoff on its Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceflightNowVideo

Launch Viewing

Tomorrow’s launch is from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, which means that the best direct views of liftoff are at either the Banana River Bridge on FL-528 W near Port Canaveral, or the southern parks on US-1 / S. Washington Avenue in Titusville.

Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor’s Center has not offered a specific ticket package for this launch, but first part of the launch window is within its hours of operation. That means that watching the launch may be possible from the Apollo Saturn V Center. Check with the KSCVC site for up-to-date information. Admission and parking fees will of course apply.

Indirect views where the rocket becomes visible after it clears the pad and the trees in the distance are at Jetty Park in Port Canaveral, Playalinda Beach in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge or of course on any of the beaches in the Cape Canaveral / Cocoa Beach area. For launch viewing at Playalinda, arriving two hours early is strongly advised, as the National Park Service and KSC Police will close the gates to new entrants once parking lots are full or as liftoff time approaches. Entry fees apply to Jetty Park and Playalinda, consult their websites for the cost and payment methods available.