Watch a SpaceX rocket launch 2 telecom satellites into orbit today (Dec. 16) - Space.com

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Update for 5 p.m. ET: SpaceX is present targeting 5:48 p.m. EST (2221 GMT) for the motorboat of 2 O3b mPower for SES today.

SpaceX volition motorboat 2 satellites for the telecom institution SES connected Friday (Dec. 16), and you tin ticker the enactment live.

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with SES' O3b mPower 1 and 2 satellites is scheduled to assistance disconnected from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday during an 87-minute model that opens astatine 4:21 p.m. EST (2121 GMT).

Watch it unrecorded present astatine Space.com courtesy of SpaceX oregon directly via the company (opens successful caller tab). Coverage is expected to statesman astir 15 minutes earlier launch.

If each goes according to plan, the Falcon 9's archetypal signifier volition travel backmost to Earth for a brushed landing connected 1 of SpaceX's robotic droneships successful the Atlantic Ocean conscionable nether 9 minutes aft launch.

It volition beryllium the eighth liftoff and touchdown for this peculiar booster, acccording to a SpaceX ngo description (opens successful caller tab). Four of its erstwhile flights were missions to the International Space Station for NASA — 2 crewed and 2 uncrewed.

The Falcon 9's precocious signifier volition proceed hauling the 2 satellites to orbit. The archetypal is scheduled to beryllium deployed into mean Earth orbit (MEO) 1 hr and 53 minutes aft liftoff, and the 2nd volition travel suit 7 minutes later.

O3b mPower 1 and 2 are the archetypal 2 satellites of an 11-spacecraft constellation that SES plans to assemble successful MEO. The satellites volition supply high-throughput and low-latency communications for customers astir the world, according to SES, which is headquartered successful Luxembourg and France.

This ngo is portion of a engaged agelong for SpaceX. The institution launched the backstage Japanese Hakuto-R satellite lander connected Sunday (Dec. 11) and was scheduled to loft the SWOT water-monitoring outer for NASA aboriginal Friday morning.

SpaceX besides plans to motorboat different large batch of its Starlink net satellites from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which is adjacent doorway to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, connected Saturday (Dec. 17).

Mike Wall is the writer of "Out There (opens successful caller tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a publication astir the hunt for alien life. Follow him connected Twitter @michaeldwall (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or Facebook (opens successful caller tab).

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Michael Wall is simply a Senior Space Writer with Space.com (opens successful caller tab) and joined the squad successful 2010. He chiefly covers exoplanets, spaceflight and subject space, but has been known to dabble successful the abstraction creation beat. His publication astir the hunt for alien life, "Out There," was published connected Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a subject writer, Michael worked arsenic a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. successful evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's grade from the University of Arizona, and a postgraduate certificate successful subject penning from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find retired what his latest task is, you tin travel Michael connected Twitter.

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