The SpaceX and Polaris Dawn teams checked a couple of important boxes before they are ready to launch the historic commercial mission.

A little less than a week after arriving at Florida’s Space Coast, the four astronauts stepped through all the activities they will experience on launch day, including suiting and and climbing aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience, which will be their home during the roughly five-day mission.

Following the activity known as a dry dress rehearsal, SpaceX cleared the pad at Launch Complex 39A in order to conduct a static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket. The T-0 for ignition happened at 6:38 a.m. EDT (1038 UTC).

The engine firing lasted about 11 seconds in total. SpaceX engineers took the data gathered from the operation and will review it as they make their final prelaunch preparations.

Therefore, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will undock from the station early next month—the tentative date, according to a source, is September 6—and attempt to make an autonomous return to Earth and land in a desert in the southwestern United States.

Then, no earlier than September 24, a Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch with two astronauts (NASA has not named the two crew members yet) to the space station with two empty seats. Wilmore and Williams will join these two Crew-9 astronauts for their previously scheduled six-month increment on the space station. All four will then return to Earth on the Crew Dragon vehicle.

Source

• Polaris Dawn: C207-3 (Resilience)
• Crew-9: C212-4 (Freedom)

Who remembers when SpaceX wasn't "the undisputed leader in launch"? Amazing how time flies.

Starlink Group 10-5 launch out of SLC-40 in Florida currently scheduled for 2024-08-20 13:20 UTC, or 2024-08-20 09:20 local time (EDT). Booster 1085-1 (new booster!) to land on A Shortfall of Gravitas.

• NextSpaceflight page
• SpaceX mission page

Webcasts:

• Space Affairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqmaT4POtV4
• Spaceflight Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ClvwCLXvI0
• NASASpaceflight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3imOt__Ce-c
• The Launch Pad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxGevMitRog
• SpaceX: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1825884120486130020
• The Space Devs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF8K1OZgr3g

Infographic source: rykllan

https://x.com/_rykllan/status/1824161314538729844

• B1061 and B1062 are tied for first place at 22 flights.
• B1067 in second place with 21 flights, 1063 in third place with 19 flights.
• B1069 and B1071, and B1073 are tied for 5th place at 17 flights each.

https://x.com/_rykllan/status/1824161318523359567

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-08-16, 18:56 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2024-08-16, 11:56 (PDT) | | Launch site | SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California, USA | | Booster | B1075-12 | | Landing | LZ-4 | | Payloads | Multiple | | Customers | Multiple | | Mission success criteria | Successful delivery of payload to SSO |

Webcasts

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WVENEaFvvw | Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cmrLaEAF9o | NASASpaceflight | | The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvFthRg22Bk&pp=ygUOdGhlIGxhdW5jaCBwYWQ%3D | SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1824517750707896665 | The Space Devs |

Stats

Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:

☑️ 27th launch from SLC-4E this year

☑️ 4 days, 16:54:00 turnaround for this pad

☑️ 20th landing on LZ-4

☑️ 341st Falcon Family Booster landing, 351st Falcon recovery attempt

☑️ 11th consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (if successful)

☑️ 80th Falcon 9 mission this year, 366th Falcon 9 mission overall

☑️ 81st SpaceX mission of 2024, 381st mission overall (excluding Starship flights)

☑️ 83rd SpaceX launch this year, 394th SpaceX launch overall (including Starship flights)

Mission info

• SpaceX mission page
• NextSpaceflight mission page

Transporter 11 is a dedicated rideshare mission by SpaceX. SpaceX’s SmallSat Rideshare Program provides small satellite operators with regularly scheduled, dedicated Falcon 9 rideshare missions to SSO for ESPA class payloads for as low as $300,000 per mission, which includes up to 50kg of payload mass.

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-08-15, 13:00 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2024-08-15, 09:00 (EDT) | | Mission | CRS NG-21 | | Launch site | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA | | Booster | B1076-16 | | Landing | LZ-1 | | Payload | WorldView Legion 3 & 4 | | Customer | Maxar Technologies | | Mission success criteria | Successful delivery of payload to LEO |

Webcasts

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o12UhwZY4gQ | Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5bnoNUK51M | NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cju0XNW2Ut0 | The Launch Pad | https://youtube.com/watch?v=6KNKORsX8mg | SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1824065327980019774 | The Space Devs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1uPcDo3G4M

Stats

Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:

☑️ 38th launch from SLC-40 this year

☑️ 5 days, 0:10:00 turnaround for this pad

☑️ 43rd landing on LZ-1

☑️ 340th Falcon Family Booster landing, 350th Falcon recovery attempt

☑️ 10th consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (if successful)

☑️ 79th Falcon 9 mission this year, 365th Falcon 9 mission overall

☑️ 80th SpaceX mission of 2024, 380th mission overall (excluding Starship flights)

☑️ 82nd SpaceX launch this year, 393rd SpaceX launch overall (including Starship flights)

Mission info

• SpaceX mission page
• NextSpaceflight mission page

Currently being built by SSL, WorldView-Legion is DigitalGlobe's next generation of earth observation satellites.