SpaceX will launch one other big batch of its Starlink web satellites to orbit today (May 10), and you may watch the liftoff live.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 51 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base today at 4:09 p.m. ET (2009 GMT; 1:09 p.m. local California time).
You’ll be able to watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the corporate (opens in latest tab). Coverage is anticipated to start about five minutes before liftoff.
Related: Starlink satellites: The whole lot it is advisable to know
If all goes in accordance with plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It should touch down on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which can be stationed within the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
It should be the third launch and landing for this particular booster, in accordance with a SpaceX mission description (opens in latest tab).
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will proceed making its strategy to low Earth orbit, where it’s expected to deploy the 51 Starlink satellites about 17.5 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has already launched greater than 4,300 satellites (opens in latest tab) for Starlink, its broadband megaconstellation. But many more are expected to go up: The corporate has permission to deploy 12,000 Starlink satellites and has applied for approval to loft 30,000 more on top of that.
Today’s launch can be the twenty eighth Falcon 9 flight of the 12 months already. SpaceX has also launched two missions with its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket in 2023, and the corporate sent a totally stacked Starship — its huge, next-generation spaceflight system — skyward for the primary time on April 20.
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