SpaceX targeting Saturday morning for launch of Falcon 9 carrying communications satellites

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - SpaceX is targeting Saturday morning for the launch of Intelsat's Galaxy-31 and Galaxy-32 satellites to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The 120-minute launch window opens at 11:06 a.m. ET (16:06 UTC). A backup launch opportunity is available on Sunday, with the same window.

Intelsat is a multinational satellite services provider based out of Luxembourg. The company is in the process of placing five geostationary communications satellites in earth's orbit to transition services as part of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plan to reallocate parts of the C-band spectrum for 5G terrestrial wireless services.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Dragon's first crew demonstration mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7, and 10 Starlink missions.