Weather conditions in the tropics created some uncertainty for the SpaceX launch from a meteorological perspective, but they did not ultimately prevent the launch. On Saturday, June 22, the 45th Weather Squadron issued a weather forecast predicting only a 50% chance of favorable launch conditions at the opening of the launch window. However, as fueling began, SpaceX announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the weather had improved to a 70% chance of favorable conditions.
The weather forecast indicated that deep tropical moisture would remain over the Florida peninsula into early the following week. As a result, scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms were expected daily, especially in the afternoon and evening. The forecast also mentioned that while the atmospheric flow would be weak enough to allow daily seabreeze development, an incoming trough would likely delay the formation and westward progression of storms by Monday and Tuesday, with initial storm development closer to the coast on those days.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster for this mission, B1078, launched for the 11th time. It had previously launched the Crew-6 mission, the USSF-124 mission, and seven other Starlink flights. A little over eight minutes after liftoff, B1078 successfully landed on the SpaceX droneship, “A Shortfall of Gravitas.” This marked the 75th landing for the droneship and the 321st booster landing overall.
Initially, B1078 was not the intended booster for this mission. The original plan was to use B1073 as the first stage booster. However, B1073 was replaced after a last-second scrub on June 14. SpaceX has not provided details about the issue that caused the scrub during engine ignition. Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s Vice President of Launch, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on June 15, stating: “Tough week dealing with production challenges and then a rare scrub at engine startup yesterday on 10-2. Unfortunately, there is a real issue, so we need to inspect the hardware in detail on this vehicle… Painful, but safety and reliability are the priority.”
This launch marked the 45th Starlink mission of 2024, with another planned for Sunday evening, set to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 8:45 p.m. PDT (11:45 p.m. EDT, 0345 UTC).
The Starlink 10-2 mission added 22 more satellites to SpaceX’s growing megaconstellation. With this launch, SpaceX has launched a total of 1,007 Starlink satellites this year alone. According to expert orbital tracker and astronomer Jonathan McDowell, there are now over 6,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit.
