SpaceX Anasis-II mission: How to watch Falcon 9 launch military satellite Tuesday

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The Falcon 9 booster for the Anasis-II mission is a history-making rocket. It was the booster used to deliver NASA astronauts to the ISS in May.


SpaceX

SpaceX may have postponed another Starlink launch on Saturday, but it’s gearing up for yet another mission as it readies itself to launch a South Korean military satellite to geostationary orbit on Tuesday. As regular readers of CNET know: We love a rocket launch — and though SpaceX launches are becoming fairly routine, it’s another chance to see the workhorse Falcon 9 in action.

The Anasis-II mission is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at approximately 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT) on July 14. It will be SpaceX’s 12th launch this year, the 90th flight of a Falcon 9 and the second overall for this particular booster, which was first flown in May to deliver NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station — the first time a commercial company has done so. Ergo, it’s got some history.

The latest weather conditions, from the 45th Weather Squadron, are favorable, but there’s a chance weather will keep the Falcon 9 on the ground. A backup launch window is scheduled for the same time on July 15, should it be required.

SpaceX carries a livestream on its webcast page for every launch, and this Starlink mission will be no different. It usually kicks off around 15 minutes before launch.

We’ll drop the YouTube stream below when it becomes available.

Around 10 minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 booster will attempt to land on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You,” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX will also attempt to catch the two payload fairing halves that form the protective nosecone on the booster. Two ships will act as catcher’s mitts, and will attempt to pluck the fairings as they glide toward the ocean.

The payload, Anasis-II, is South Korea’s first military communications satellite. Because of its use in the military, there’s not a lot of information about Anasis-II, but for the fact it’s based off the Eurostar E3000 satellite bus, according to the Everyday Astronaut. 


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source: cnet.com