Space X hopes
weather doesn’t interfere with a night launch set for early Friday morning between 12:29 a.m. and 2:57 a.m.
Like many people, Steve Linden said he’ll never forget the first time he saw a nighttime rocket launch.
He started public relations work for Port Canaveral in October. In January, he saw his first Space Coast night launch. “There was a launch with the booster landing, and it was spectacular,” Linden said. “The nighttime launches are awesome because it lights up the sky. When the booster comes back, it’s even more exciting.”
This week’s SpaceX Falcon 9 launch attempt is planned for just after midnight in the wee hours of Friday morning, with a launch window from 12:29 a.m. to 2:57 a.m.
Fair warning to launch watchers, though: the Air Force weather forecast indicates just a 40 percent chance of good weather for a launch, with thick clouds being the top concern.
“I think nighttime launches are that much better, that it’s worth noting for tourists and other visitors to the area,” said Dale Ketcham, vice president of government and external relations for Space Florida, the state’s marketing and development agency for space operations.
He said night launches also can be visible from much farther away. For example, an Atlas 5 launch in 2015 left glowing clouds in the atmosphere visible from Miami — more than 200 miles away.
Nighttime launches are always spectacular because of the bright light cast by a rocket lifting off, even more so if skies are clear.
A view near water also offers a long, bright reflection. A landing of the rocket booster, which would also be dazzling, is not expected this time because the booster has already been used, and this generation of Falcon 9 wasn’t designed for more than two or three flights, SpaceX officials have said.
SpaceX plans to carry a satellite for one of the world’s biggest satellite companies — Luxembourg’s SES. The SES 12 launch will be from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40.
Since the launch pad is south of the space center proper, viewing could be decent from areas around Port Canaveral.
But viewing may be limited to public parks and causeways this time because many restaurants and even bars in the area that are usually open could be closed by liftoff time.
For example, the Rikki Tiki Tavern at Cocoa Beach Pier, which draws launch watchers on some days, will close by 10 p.m. An employee there said the pier has stayed open later for launches, but not this time. Bars at Port Canaveral also are usually closed by midnight. Two good sites for nighttime launches are the causeway along State Road 528, aka the BeachLine Expressway, just before you get to the port, and Max Brewer Bridge, at the end of State Road 406 (Garden Street) in Titusville. Both will give you a watery reflection in the foreground.
The SES satellite will be one of the company’s largest. It will help support SES’s direct-to-home broadcasting and data connectivity services in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, including rapidly growing markets such as India and Indonesia, according to SES.
It’s replacing an older satellite and will be near the previously launched SES-8.