SpaceX is poised to launch one other batch of its Starlink web satellites to orbit.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Friday (Dec. 8) during a roughly two-hour window that opens at 3:03 a.m. EST (0803 GMT; 12:03 a.m. local California time).
You’ll be able to watch the motion via SpaceX’s account on X (formerly often called Twitter), starting about five minutes before the opening of the launch window.
Related: Starlink satellite train: The best way to see and track it within the night sky
The Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth for a vertical landing about 8.5 minutes after launch, if all goes in response to plan. It should touch down on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You,” which will likely be stationed within the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
It should be the thirteenth launch and landing for this particular booster, in response to a SpaceX mission description. Six of its 12 previous flights have been Starlink missions.
The 22 Starlink satellites, meanwhile, will deploy from the Falcon 9’s upper stage into low Earth orbit about 62.5 minutes after liftoff.
Friday morning’s launch will likely be the 91st orbital mission of 2023 for SpaceX, extending the corporate’s single-year record. The previous mark, 61 launches, was set in 2022.