SpaceX is set to launch another batch of its Starlink internet satellites Sunday (Jan. 19), just three days after a test flight of the company’s Starship megarocket ended in an explosion.
A Falcon nine rocket carrying 27 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off Sunday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, a 3. 5-hour window that opens at 10:35 a. m. EST (3:35 p. m. GMT; 7:35 a. m. local time).
SpaceX will stream the action live from your X account, approximately five minutes before launch.
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff, touching down in the Pacific Ocean on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.”
This will be the tenth launch and landing of this booster, according to a description of the SpaceX project. Seven of its nine flights to date have been Starlink projects.
The Falcon 9 level, meanwhile, will carry the 27 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit and deploy them there 61. 5 minutes after takeoff.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
Sunday’s launch will be SpaceX’s ninth Falcon Nine project of 2025 and its 10th liftoff of the year.
The other launch is the seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, which took position on Thursday, Jan. 16 from South Texas.
That flight was a mixed bag for the company. Starship’s giant first-stage booster came back to its launch site for a dramatic catch by the tower’s “chopstick” arms, but the vehicle’s upper stage exloded just 8.5 minutes after liftoff, apparently after suffering a propellant leak.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. ET on Jan. 18 with the new launch date of Jan. 19.
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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Editor at Space. com and joined the team in 2010. It mainly covers exoplanets, spaceflight, and military space, but is known for dabbling in the field of space art. His book about the search for extraterrestrial life, “Out There,” was published on November 13, 2018. Prior to becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He holds a Ph. D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a B. A. from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in clinical writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his most recent assignment is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.
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