SpaceX plans to launch another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites early Thursday morning (May 4), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 56 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday at 3:34 a.m. EDT (0734 GMT).
You can watch the launch here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company (opens in new tab). Coverage is expected to begin about 5 minutes before liftoff.
Related: Starlink satellites: Everything you need to know
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth 8.5 minutes after liftoff, touching down on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.
It will be the seventh launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description (opens in new tab).
The Falcon 9’s upper stage will continue powering its way upward, eventually deploying the 56 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit 65 minutes after liftoff, if all goes according to plan.
Starlink is SpaceX’s huge and ever-growing constellation of broadband satellites. To date, the company has launched 4,284 Starlink spacecraft, 3,933 of which are currently functional, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who keeps tabs on such things (opens in new tab).
Thursday’s launch will be the 29th orbital mission of the year for SpaceX and the 27th for a Falcon 9. The other two SpaceX orbital flights this year have involved the company’s burly Falcon Heavy rocket.
The above numbers don’t include SpaceX’s highest-profile launch of the year — the April 20 test flight of Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. That mission wasn’t designed to reach orbit, and it didn’t, ending with a commanded destruction of Starship about four minutes after liftoff.Â
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).Â
