SpaceX set for unique weekend launch from Cape Canaveral

UPDATE: LIFTOFF of Falcon 9 and 143 payloads for Transporter-1 at 10 a.m. ET! Shortly after launch, the rocket's first stage booster successfully landed on a drone ship between Cuba and the Bahamas. Full story, photos, and videos here.

UPDATE (9:35 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23):SpaceX scrubbed this morning's launch due to unfavorable weather at Launch Complex 40. The next attempt is currently set for no earlier than 10 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 24. Watch it live here.

Update (8:15 p.m. Thursday):SpaceX is now targeting no earlier than 9:40 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, for this launch. This also means weather odds decline from 80% "go" to 60% "go." Watch live here.

SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station are set for the company's next launch on Friday, a unique mission that will hug the Florida coast as it flies a southern trajectory.

If everything goes as planned, a previously flown Falcon 9 will vault off Launch Complex 40 at 9:24 a.m. and turn southeast, placing its mission on a sun-synchronous – or nearly polar – trajectory. Friday's launch window will remain open for about an hour.

About 350 and 400 miles downrange, meanwhile, the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship will be waiting halfway between the Bahamas and Cuba to catch the rocket's 162-foot first stage. Spectators along the coast and down to South Florida might not see much due to the morning sunlight, but Falcon 9 should be plenty visible for the first few minutes of flight.

The Space Force on Thursday said weather will likely be 80% "go" for the attempt.

"On Friday, the boundary will begin to erode over north Florida, but it will bring mid-level cloudiness across the spaceport," the 45th Weather Squadron said of a frontal system moving across the panhandle. "The primary launch weather concern is the thick cloud layer rule associated with these frontal clouds."

Packed into the rocket's fairing are dozens of payloads owned by organizations ranging from SpaceX itself to the Department of Defense to NASA. The mission, labeled Transporter-1, is a "rideshare," meaning instead of launching on large payload, Falcon 9 delivers dozens of smaller ones to several different locations.

Rideshares allow organizations to fly smaller, more compact satellites on large rockets while splitting costs with other customers. The tradeoff is that organizations have to generally target their missions along one trajectory – smaller rockets, on the other hand, could launch those smaller payloads to highly specific orbits on a per-mission basis.

Rockets flying toward the south are rare for Florida. For decades, launch providers avoided the corridor as a rocket failure meant debris could endanger not only South Florida, but the Bahamas and Cuba as well. 

But last August, SpaceX became the first since the 1960s to thread the needle and launch a mission, SAOCOM-1B, towards a north-to-south polar orbit. Friday's sun-synchronous flight will be similar, but its trajectory will not be as extreme.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support space journalism by subscribing at floridatoday.com/specialoffer/.

Launch Friday, Jan. 22

• Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9
• Mission: Transporter-1 rideshare
• Launch Time: 9:24 a.m.
• Launch Window: To 10:22 a.m.
• Launch Complex: 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
• Landing: Of Course I Still Love You drone ship
• Weather: 80% "go"

Visit floridatoday.com/space at 8 a.m. Friday for live video, updates, and chat.