Update at 11 a.m. ET: SpaceX has pushed back the launch of its next Starlink mission to January 30, a delay of one day, to allow additional time for pre-launch checks. Liftoff is now set for Monday, January 30th at 11:34 AM EST (8:34 AM PT, 1634 GMT).
SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink broadband satellites into orbit on Monday (January 30), and you can watch the event live.
a Falcon 9 Rockets topped with 49 Starlink Monday, the spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:34 a.m. EDT (1634 GMT; 8:34 a.m. California local time).
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 launch.
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 8.5 minutes after liftoff to land on SpaceX’s Of Course I Still Love You drone, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
This will be the seventh launch and landing of this particular booster, according to A SpaceX mission description (Opens in a new tab).
The rocket’s upper stage will go on to carry 49 Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit, deploying all of them 1 hour and 17 minutes after launch.
SpaceX has already launched Approximately 3,800 Starlink satellites (Opens in a new tab)and the massive constellation will continue to grow for a while: The company has permission to loft 12,000 spacecraft online and has applied for approval to deploy about 30,000 more on top of that.
Monday’s launch will already be the seventh of the year for SpaceX, and the third Starlink mission of 2023. Although it’s still very early days, Elon Musk’s company is well on its way to breaking the one-year record. 61 orbital launchesset last year.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:10 AM ET on January 29 with a new launch date of January 30. Launch was scheduled for January 29th, but SpaceX pushed things back a day to Pre-check out (Opens in a new tab).
Mike Wall is the author of “Abroad (Opens in a new tab)Book (Major Grand Publishing, 2018; illustration by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @tweet (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @employee (Opens in a new tab) or Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
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