{"id":23544,"date":"2026-04-13T22:05:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/launch-preview-falcon-9-to-launch-starlink-satellites-new-glenn-to-launch-with-flown-booster\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T22:05:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:05:46","slug":"launch-preview-falcon-9-to-launch-starlink-satellites-new-glenn-to-launch-with-flown-booster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/launch-preview-falcon-9-to-launch-starlink-satellites-new-glenn-to-launch-with-flown-booster\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch Preview: Falcon 9 to launch Starlink satellites, New Glenn to launch with flown booster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Six launches are scheduled worldwide this week, with the third launch of Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, featuring a previously-flown booster, highlighting the week. SpaceX is expected to launch three Starlink missions this week: two from California and one from Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Internationally, two Chinese rockets, a Lilian-1 and Chang Zheng 2D, are scheduled to launch unknown payloads from Jiuquan.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Lijian-1 | Unknown Payload<\/p>\n<p>A Chinese commercial launch will take place on Tuesday, April 14, at 04:00 UTC from Site 130 at the Jiuquan Launch Center in Gansu, China. The four-stage, solid-propellant launch vehicle known as Lijian-1, or Kinetica 1, is expected to launch a currently unknown payload.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the 12th launch of a Lijian-1, and the first of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-24<\/p>\n<p>The first SpaceX launch of this week is on Tuesday, April 14, at 3:59 AM EDT (07:59 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida. The four-hour launch window lasts until 6:13 AM EDT (10:13 UTC). Falcon 9 will loft 29 Starlink satellites into a 53.16-degree inclination orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Aerospace industry analysis<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>Space Shuttle models<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>NASA mission patches<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>\n<p>     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9 booster supporting this flight will be B1080, flying for the 25th time. The booster will land atop the autonomous droneship <em>Just Read The Instructions<\/em>, stationed approximately 640 km downrange of the launch site, in the Atlantic Ocean. B1080 has previously supported the Axiom Mission 2, Euclid, Axiom Mission 3, CRS-30, Astra 1P\/SES-24, CRS-21, and 19 Starlink missions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"[DOUBLE HEADER] SpaceX Tests Flight 12 Ship and Booster\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9xTLEDWNLpM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" name=\"fitvid0\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Falcon 9 is a 3.9 m diameter, 70 m tall two-stage rocket. Nine Merlin 1D engines power the first stage booster, while the expendable second stage utilizes a single vacuum-optimized Merlin engine. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy were the first orbital rockets to achieve regular reuse, with a Falcon booster having recently flown 34 flights. The two payload fairings are also recovered and reused after flight.<\/p>\n<p>Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-27<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX will switch operations to the west coast for the next Falcon 9 launch, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 14, at 7:00 PM PDT (Wednesday, at 02:00 UTC) at the start of a four-hour launch window.<\/p>\n<p>Falcon 9 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4-East (SLC4-E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California carrying 25 Starlink satellites into a low-Earth orbit (LEO).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Space Coast Live: 24\/7 Views of NASA, SpaceX Falcon 9 Operations, and Starship Pad Construction\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jm8wRjD3xVA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" name=\"fitvid1\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Following launch, booster B1082 will land atop the autonomous droneship <em>Of Course I Still Love You<\/em>, stationed due south of SLC-4E in the Pacific Ocean. The droneship will deliver the booster to Long Beach, California, where the booster will be prepared for a return to Vandenberg.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the 21st flight of booster B1082, which has previously supported 17 Starlink missions, plus USSF-62\/WSF-M1, OneWeb #20, and NROL-145 (USA-23-544).<\/p>\n<p>Chang Zheng 2D | Unknown Payload<\/p>\n<p>China will launch a Chang Zheng 2D on Friday, April 17, at 04:10 UTC from Site 94 (SLS-2) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China. The payload remains uncertain, but hazard notices indicate that the rocket will fly due south out of Jiuquan.<\/p>\n<p>The Chang Zheng 2D rocket is manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and consists of two stages. Standing at a height of 40.77 m, all of the rocket\u2019s stages are propelled by hypergolic propellants.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Blue Origin Launches Bluebird 7 - Booster reuse and landing\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xlZVPFso4mk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" name=\"fitvid2\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>New Glenn | BlueBird Block 2 FM2<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin is set to launch its partially reusable New Glenn rocket on Friday, April 17, at 6:45 AM EDT (10:45 UTC), from Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at CCSFS in Florida. This mission will mark Blue Origin\u2019s first attempt at reusing a New Glenn first stage booster, with the previously flown GS1-SN002 <em>Never Tell Me The Odds,<\/em> which first flew on New Glenn\u2019s second mission in November 2025, being used on this flight. This mission has a three-hour, fifty-eight-minute launch window.<\/p>\n<p>Following launch and stage separation,&nbsp;<em>Never Tell Me The Odds<\/em> will attempt a landing atop Blue Origin\u2019s booster recovery platform,&nbsp;<em>Jacklyn<\/em>, which will be stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>New Glenn will loft a single BlueBird Block 2 FM2 satellite, also known as BlueBird 7, into low-Earth orbit, flying a southeasterly trajectory. The payload masses 6,100 kg, and will join a small constellation providing cellular broadband services across the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 17-22<\/p>\n<p>Capping off the week, a Falcon 9 will launch on Saturday, April 18, at 7:00 AM PDT (14:00 UTC) from SLC-4E at VSFB in California. The four-hour launch window lasts until 11:00 AM PDT (18:00 UTC). Booster B1097 will support the mission, lofting 25 Starlink satellites into LEO on a southerly trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>B1097 will be making its eighth flight and will land atop <em>Of Course I Still Love You<\/em> downrange in the Pacific Ocean. Previous missions supported by B1097 have included Twilight (Pandora &amp; Others), Sentinel-6 B, and five Starlink missions.<\/p>\n<p>If schedules hold, this mission will represent the 90th orbital launch attempt this year, and the 630th Falcon 9 mission to date.<\/p>\n<p><i>(Lead Image: New Glenn launches from Florida. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six launches are scheduled worldwide this week, with the third launch of Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, featuring a previously-flown booster, highlighting the week. SpaceX is expected to launch three Starlink missions this week: two from California and one from Florida. Internationally, two Chinese rockets, a Lilian-1 and Chang Zheng 2D, are scheduled to launch unknown [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,1258,1695,7844,135,7853,479,773,7802,510,675,682,316,440,603],"class_list":["post-23544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-bluebird","tag-cape-canaveral","tag-chang-zheng-2d","tag-china","tag-f9","tag-falcon-9","tag-lc-36","tag-lijian-1","tag-new-glenn","tag-slc-40","tag-slc-4e","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-vandenberg"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}