As March approaches, SpaceX hopes to conduct another launch from California with a constellation of 22 Starlink satellites on board.
The Starlink 7-18 mission is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 8:32 PM PT (11:32 PM ET, 0332 UTC).
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage of the mission starting about 30 minutes before liftoff.
This will be the 15th flight of the first stage supporting this mission, tail number B1071, in the SpaceX fleet. It has previously launched two SmallSat Transporter ride-sharing missions, missions for the National Reconnaissance Office and NASA's SWOT payload for ocean monitoring, among others.
After liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E), B1071 will land on SpaceX's “Of Course I Still Love You” drone, just over eight minutes into the flight. This will mark the 87th landing on OCISLY and the 289th booster landing to date.
SpaceX will deploy the Starlink satellites about an hour after they launch from the Golden State. This mission will be the twentieth Starlink flight in 2024 and will boost SpaceX to more than 6,100 Starlinks launched to date.
According to astronomer and tracking expert Jonathan McDowell, there are currently 5,680 Starlink satellites currently in orbit.
