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SpaceX plans to launch 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites tonight (Aug. 6), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT on Aug. 7).
Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before launch.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches for a then-record 15th time from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center pad 39A on Dec. 17, 2022. (Image credit: SpaceX)
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back for a landing about eight minutes after liftoff. It will touch down on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
It will be the fourth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage will continue carrying the 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), where they will be deployed about 65 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has launched 4,881 Starlink spacecraft to date, according to satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell. More than 4,500 of those satellites are currently functional.
SpaceX plans to loft many more Starlink craft to LEO over the coming weeks and months. The company has approval to deploy 12,000 satellites and has applied for permission to launch 30,000 more on top of that.
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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, “Out There,” was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.
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