SpaceX plans to launch 22 extra of its Starlink web satellites to orbit tonight (Oct. 4), on the corporate’s seventieth orbital mission of the yr.
The Starlink spacecraft are scheduled to raise off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral House Drive Station tonight at 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 GMT on Oct. 5). If the rocket would not fly on time tonight, there are 4 backup alternatives out there, starting at 11:38 p.m. EDT (0338 GMT) and ending at 1:57 a.m. EDT (0557 GMT) on Oct. 6.
You possibly can watch the motion dwell through SpaceX’s account on X (previously referred to as Twitter). Protection is predicted to begin about 5 minutes earlier than launch.
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If all goes in keeping with plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth for a vertical touchdown at sea on the SpaceX drone ship Simply Learn the Directions about 8.5 minutes after launch.
It is going to be the eighth liftoff and touchdown for this Falcon 9 first stage, in keeping with a SpaceX mission description. 4 of its earlier seven launches despatched Starlink batches aloft.
The 22 Starlink satellites, in the meantime, are scheduled to deploy from the Falcon 9’s higher stage into low Earth orbit (LEO) about 65 minutes after launch.
Tonight’s flight would be the seventieth orbital mission for SpaceX in 2023. The vast majority of these launches have been devoted to constructing out the Starlink megaconstellation, which at present consists of greater than 4,800 operational satellites.
The Falcon 9 rocket has flown 66 of SpaceX’s orbital missions this yr, with the corporate’s highly effective Falcon Heavy caring for the opposite three. However that latter quantity is about to develop: A Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission on Oct. 12.
SpaceX additionally launched a check flight this yr of its new Starship deep-space transportation system. That mission, which didn’t purpose to ship a payload to orbit, ended 4 minutes after launch when Starship bumped into issues.
