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SpaceX plans to launch 22 Starlink internet satellites to orbit tonight (July 22), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight at 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 GMT on July 23).
You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before liftoff.
Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed space travel
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches a batch of the company’s Starlink broadband satellites on March 3, 2023. (Image credit: SpaceX)
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back down to Earth for a landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, on the SpaceX droneship Just Read the Instructions.
It will be the sixth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will keep hauling the 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO). The spacecraft will be deployed there about 65 minutes after launch.
Starlink launches are hardly a novelty these days; for example, SpaceX has sent four batches of the internet satellites to orbit this month already.
The company has launched more than 4,800 Starlink craft to LEO in total, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell. And the number will grow far into the future; SpaceX has approval to deploy 12,000 Starlink satellites and has applied for permission to loft another 30,000.
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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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