SpaceX plans to launch yet another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit and land the returning rocket on a ship at sea today (March 29), and you can watch the action live.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with 56 Starlink satellites is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 4:01 p.m. EDT (2001 GMT).Â
You can 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:Â SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth for a vertical touchdown on the SpaceX droneship Just Read the Instructions about 8.5 minutes after launch.
It will be the fourth launch and landing for this particular booster, SpaceX wrote in a mission description (opens in new tab).Â
The Falcon 9’s upper stage will continue hauling the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO). It’s scheduled to deploy all 56 satellites 65 minutes after liftoff.
Today’s launch will be the 21st for SpaceX in 2023 and the 11th this year devoted primarily to building out the company’s Starlink broadband constellation.
SpaceX has lofted 4,161 Starlink satellites to date overall, and 3,811 of them are currently operational, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell (opens in new tab).Â
Those numbers will continue to grow far into the future; Elon Musk’s company has permission to deploy 12,000 Starlink satellites in LEO and has applied for permission for another 30,000 on top of that.
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 on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab). Â
