Nov. 11 (UPI) — SpaceX is set to launch a South Korean communication satellite from Florida on Monday afternoon.
The mission to send the KT SAT Corporation’s Koreasat-6A into space is scheduled for 12:07 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
If all goes to plan, the second stage will continue skyward and deploy the KoreaSat-6A telecom satellite into orbit nearly 35 minutes after launch.
The geostationary orbit of the satellite, which allows it to hover over the same portion of the planet, is a popular destination for weather satellites and spy satellites.
However, most of the attention will be on the first-stage booster, which will aim to make its 23rd launch and recovery, tying a record with two other SpaceX boosters.
The cost-saving process of reusing first-stage boosters, along with the time it takes to get them ready for the next space flight, has turned SpaceX into the leading commercial space company in the world.
The first stage is expected to return to Earth autonomously and land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after takeoff. Two other SpaceX first-stage boosters have also flown 23 flights, but both are no longer in service.
One of those workhouse first stage rockets missed sticking the landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” on Aug. 28 after helping lift Starlink satellites into space.
