SpaceX plans to motorboat different large batch of its Starlink net satellites to orbit connected Tuesday (Jan. 10), and you tin ticker the enactment live.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 51 of SpaceX's Starlink net satellites is scheduled to assistance disconnected from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base Tuesday astatine 11:02 p.m. EST (8:02 p.m. section California time; 0402 GMT connected Jan. 11). The motorboat was primitively targeted for Monday nighttime (Jan. 9), but SpaceX stood down from that effort owed to atrocious weather.
Watch it unrecorded present astatine Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, oregon straight via the company (opens successful caller tab). Coverage is expected to statesman astir 5 minutes earlier liftoff.
Related: 10 weird things astir SpaceX's Starlink net satellites
If each goes according to plan, the Falcon 9's archetypal signifier volition travel backmost to Earth conscionable nether 9 minutes aft launch, touching down connected the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which volition beryllium stationed successful the Pacific Ocean.
It volition beryllium the ninth motorboat and landing for this peculiar booster, according to EverydayAstronaut.com (opens successful caller tab).
The Falcon 9's precocious stage, meanwhile, volition haul the Starlink satellites to debased Earth orbit, deploying each 51 of them 29 minutes aft liftoff, according to a SpaceX ngo description (opens successful caller tab).
Starlink is SpaceX's broadband constellation, which presently consists of more than 3,300 operational satellites (opens successful caller tab).
That fig is ever-increasing, arsenic Tuesday's planned liftoff shows, and whitethorn yet go genuinely staggering. SpaceX has support to motorboat 12,000 Starlink spacecraft and has applied for support to loft astir 30,000 much connected apical of that.
The Starlink motorboat volition beryllium the 2nd successful 2 days for SpaceX, if each goes according to plan. A Falcon 9 besides launched 40 OneWeb net satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station connected Monday nighttime (Jan. 9).
Editor's note: This communicative was updated astatine 10:50 p.m. ET connected Jan. 9 with the caller motorboat clip of 12:35 a.m. EST. It was updated again astatine 12:15 a.m. ET connected Jan. 10 with the quality that SpaceX decided to stand down from the Monday night/Tuesday greeting attempt (opens successful caller tab) owed to atrocious weather.
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).