SpaceX plans to launch a batch of its Starlink Internet satellites from the central coast of California today (January 24).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink craft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today, during a 3.5-hour window that opens at 9:07 a.m. EST (1407 GMT; 6:07 a.m. local time).
SpaceX will stream the action live from its X account, starting about 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 23rd launch and landing of this booster, according to a description of the SpaceX project. Fourteen of its 22 flights to date have been StarLink projects.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will carry the 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there about 64 minutes after liftoff.
Related: Starlink Satellite Train: How to see it and in the night sky
Today’s launch will be the eleventh Falcon nine project of 2025 and the seventh Starlink project of the year.
Starlink is the largest satellite constellation ever created and growing all the time. The network currently includes more than 6,900 operational vessels, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.
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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Editor at Space. com and joined the team in 2010. He basically covers exoplanets, spaceflight, and military space, but he is known to be dedicated to space art. His book on the search for extraterrestrial life, “out there,” was published on November 13, 2018. Prior to becoming a clinical writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a PhD. In evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a higher education 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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