Feb. 18 (UPI) — SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of a rocket booster on its drone ship off the coast of an island in the Bahamas for the first time on Tuesday, the company said.
The next SpaceX Starlink flight is scheduled for 6 p.m. EST on Tuesday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission will place a new round of 23 Starlink satellites into lower Earth orbit.
The first stage of the SpaceX booster will return to Earth and is expected to land on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions about eight minutes after launch.
This time, instead of in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the drone ship will be parked off the coast of the Bahamas island of Exuma.
“There is the possibility that residents of and visitors to The Bahamas may hear one or more sonic booms during the landing, but what may be experiencing will depend on weather and other conditions,” SpaceX said in a statement.
SpaceX said the launch will mark the 16th flight for the first-stage booster. The booster has been part of nine previous Starlink flights. SpaceX’s ability to reuse the first-stage boosters has allowed the company to return to space much faster and at less cost than past NASA flights using non-usable first-stage boosters.
