SpaceX plans to launch another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Tuesday (Jan. 10), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 51 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites is scheduled to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base Tuesday at 11:02 p.m. EST (8:02 p.m. local California time; 0402 GMT on Jan. 11). The launch was originally targeted for Monday night (Jan. 9), but SpaceX stood down from that attempt due to bad weather.
Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company (opens in new tab). Coverage is expected to begin about five minutes before liftoff.
Related: 10 weird things about SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth just under nine minutes after launch, touching down on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
It will be the ninth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to EverydayAstronaut.com (opens in new tab).
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will haul the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying all 51 of them 29 minutes after liftoff, according to a SpaceX mission description (opens in new tab).
Starlink is SpaceX’s broadband constellation, which currently consists of more than 3,300 operational satellites (opens in new tab).
That number is ever-increasing, as Tuesday’s planned liftoff shows, and may eventually become truly staggering. SpaceX has approval to launch 12,000 Starlink spacecraft and has applied for permission to loft nearly 30,000 more on top of that.
The Starlink launch will be the second in two days for SpaceX, if all goes according to plan. A Falcon 9 also launched 40 OneWeb internet satellites from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday night (Jan. 9).
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 10:50 p.m. ET on Jan. 9 with the new launch time of 12:35 a.m. EST. It was updated again at 12:15 a.m. ET on Jan. 10 with the news that SpaceX decided to stand down from the Monday night/Tuesday morning attempt (opens in new tab) due to bad weather.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).