Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
The 2024 launch schedule kicks off today at 6:04pm from Cape Canaveral when SpaceX is planning to launch a satellite to geosynchronous orbit for Swedish telecommunications company Ovzon. Dubbed Ovzon-3, this satellite will offer mobile broadband connectivity in underserved regions and will launch aboard a Falcon 9 from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and once its job is completed, the booster will return to land at its landing zone here at the Cape. Area residents should expect a sonic boom sometime after 6:12pm, depending on their proximity to the landing site.
Launch “Jellyfish?”
Today’s launch comes shortly after local sunset, which is at 5:38pm Eastern Time, during “nautical twilight” — the period of time when the center of the sun is 6–12 degrees below the horizon.
That’s the perfect time for a true “jellyfish” event during staging: Falcon 9 will have risen above the horizon and back into the sunlight, and when the first stage of the rocket’s gasses expand in the lower pressure of the upper atmosphere, they will be brightly illuminated in the bright light above launch spectators. The same will hold true for the second stage as it fires up and weather permitting, this launch could be quite a show.
Some Good Fortune May Be Necessary for Launch Viewers
“Weather Permitting” may be a key factor regarding what launch viewers see above Space Coast skies. The National Weather service has called for mostly cloudy skies throughout the day. Technically, that means 75-87.5% of the sky is covered by with opaque (not transparent) clouds, and those clouds might diminish any jellyfish that appears during the flight sequence. On the other hand, NWS’s forecast is for the general area and covers a wide-range of time. Florida weather can and does change from moment to moment so matters are literally and figuratively up in the air in terms of what will be seen.
Delving deep into the subject, NOAA does offer more specific cloud cover forecasts and theirs is somewhat more optimistic:
The NOAA forecast for cloud cover has less cloud coverage than does the National Weather Service forecast, and seems to give us a 50/50 chance at seeing something spectacular.
45th Weather Wing Forecast
The authoritative weather forecast service for Eastern Range rocket launches is the 45th Weather Wing of the US Space Force, and their latest forecast for today’s launch is mostly positive, with only a 10% chance of a weather violation:
In their forecast, the 45th mentions that “the main weather concern remains the Thick Cloud Layers Rule as mid and high clouds increase ahead of the low.”
Either way, it’s probably a good idea to bring your camera along if you plan to view the launch.
Trajectory
The trajectory for tonight’s launch is eastward.
Booster History
According to SpaceX, “[t]his is the 10th flight of [Booster B-1076] supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-26, OneWeb Launch 16, Intelsat IS-40e, O3b mPOWER, and five Starlink missions.” Following stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.”