SpaceX plans to launch another large batch of its Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Tuesday (January 10), and you can watch the event live.
a Falcon 9 The rocket was topped off with 51 from SpaceX Starlink internet satellites It is scheduled to lift off from Space Force Base Vandenberg, California, Tuesday at 11:02 p.m. EDT (8:02 p.m. California local time; 0402 GMT Jan. 11). The launch was originally intended for Monday night (January 9), but SpaceX backtracked on that attempt due to bad weather.
Watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of Space.com SpaceXor directly across the company (Opens in a new tab). Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before take-off.
Related: 10 strange things about SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9 first stage will return to Earth a land Less than nine minutes after launch, it touched down on the SpaceX Of Course I Still Love You drone, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
This will be the ninth launch and landing of this particular booster, According to EverydayAstronaut.com (Opens in a new tab).
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 upper stage will deliver Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, deploying all 51 of them 29 minutes after liftoff, According to the SpaceX mission description (Opens in a new tab).
Starlink is SpaceX’s broadband constellation, which currently consists of More than 3,300 global satellites (Opens in a new tab).
That number is growing, as shown by Tuesday’s take-off plan, and it could eventually become truly staggering. SpaceX has received approval to launch 12,000 Starlink spacecraft and has applied for overhead permission for nearly 30,000 more on top of that.
The Starlink launch will be the second in two days for SpaceX, if all goes according to plan. A Falcon 9, too Launched 40 OneWeb Internet satellites From Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida Monday night (January 9).
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 10:50 PM ET on January 9th with the new launch time of 12:35 AM ET. Updated again at 12:15 AM ET on January 10 with the news that SpaceX has decided Undo attempt Monday night/Tuesday morning (Opens in a new tab) due to bad weather.
Mike Wall is the author of “Abroad (Opens in a new tab)Book (Major Grand Publishers, 2018; illustration by Carl Tate), a book about the search for aliens. Follow him on Twitter @employee (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @employee (Opens in a new tab) or Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
“Explorer. Unapologetic entrepreneur. Alcohol fanatic. Certified writer. Wannabe tv evangelist. Twitter fanatic. Student. Web scholar. Travel buff.”
