SpaceX will launch one other huge batch of its Starlink broadband satellites and land a rocket on a ship at sea Thursday (Oct. 27), and you’ll watch it reside.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 53 Starlink satellites is scheduled to raise off from California’s Vandenberg Area Power Base Thursday at 8:52 p.m. EDT (5:52 p.m. native California time; 0052 GMT on Oct. 28).
If all goes based on plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come again to Earth and made a pinpoint touchdown rather less than 9 minutes after launch on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Nonetheless Love You, which shall be stationed within the Pacific Ocean.
Associated: SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation launches in photos
It will likely be the eighth liftoff and touchdown for this specific booster, according to a SpaceX mission description (opens in new tab). The rocket beforehand helped launch the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Earth-observation satellite in November 2020, NASA’s DART asteroid-smashing probe in November 2021, and 5 different Starlink missions.Â
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime, will proceed powering its approach to orbit, finally deploying the 53 Starlinks round 15.5 minutes after launch.
SpaceX has already launched more than 3,500 satellites (opens in new tab) for Starlink, its web megaconstellation, which already gives service to prospects all over the world.
A lot of these spacecraft have gone up this 12 months. SpaceX has launched 48 orbital missions already in 2022, and almost two-thirds of them have ferried huge Starlink batches skyward.Â
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide concerning the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab). Â
