SpaceX plans to launch another batch of its Starlink broadband satellites to orbit early Friday morning (May 19), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 22 next-generation Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday at 12:41 a.m. EDT (0441 GMT).
Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company (opens in new tab). Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before launch.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see it in the night sky
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after liftoff. It will touch down on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.
It will be the 5th launch and landing for this particular booster, SpaceX said in a mission description (opens in new tab).
The rocket’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue carrying the 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. They’re scheduled to be deployed about 65 minutes after launch.
Starlink is SpaceX’s huge and ever-growing constellation of broadband spacecraft. The country has already launched more than 4,400 Starlink satellites (opens in new tab) but could end up deploying nearly 10 times that many, if the required approvals come through.
The satellites going up Friday morning are “V2 minis,” which are larger and more capable than the first-generation Starlink craft that make up the vast majority of the megaconstellation. The full-size Starlink V2 satellites, which will be even bigger and more powerful, will be launched by SpaceX’s huge Starship rocket, which is still in development.
Friday’s launch will be the 30th Falcon 9 flight of the year and the 32nd orbital mission overall for SpaceX in 2023. (Elon Musk’s company has also launched its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket twice this year.)
The Starlink mission could be the first of a Friday doubleheader for SpaceX. The company is apparently targeting (opens in new tab) later on Friday morning for a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. That mission will loft broadband satellites for OneWeb and a communications satellite for Iridium.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), or on Facebook (opens in new tab) and Instagram (opens in new tab).
