SpaceX is launching 20 Starlink satellites from California tonight
SpaceX is set to launch 20 Starlink Internet satellites from California today (May 9), including 13 with live-cell capability.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Starlink craft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight, during a two-hour window that opens at 11:20 pm EDT (8:20 pm local California time; 0320 GMT on May 10). . SpaceX had originally planned to launch the mission on Wednesday (May 8) night, but pulled out of the effort.
SpaceX will livestream the launch via its X account, starting five minutes before the window opens.
Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky
If all goes according to plan, Falcon 9's first stage will return to Earth 8 minutes after launch. It will touch the droneship of course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
Step one is the 4th launch and landing for this particular first phase SpaceX mission description.
Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, will carry the Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO), where they will be deployed 61.5 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX launched the Starlink mission on Wednesday, sending 23 satellites to Leo from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Back-to-back launches are far from a novelty for SpaceX these days. For example, on March 30, the company launched two missions — a Starlink module and a Eutelsat 36D communications satellite — less than four hours apart, both from Florida's Space Coast.
Editor's note: This story was updated on May 9 at 12:30 a.m. ET with news of a new target release date of May 9.
