by SpaceX plans to launch another large batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Thursday (March 2), and you can watch the action live.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 51 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday at 1:52 PM EST (1852 GMT; 10:52 AM local California time).
That timeline has moved to the right, like SpaceX had targeted Tuesday (February 28) (opens in a new tab) for the ride. The company apparently moved the launch to Thursday (opens in a new tab) to deconflict with the preparation work for the planned early-Thursday launch of the Crew-6 astronaut mission from Florida.
You can watch the Starlink launch live here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or live through the company (opens in a new tab). Coverage is expected to start approximately five minutes before departure.
Related: 10 Weird Things About SpaceX’s Starlink Internet Satellites
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about 8 minutes and 45 seconds after launch on Thursday, touching down with the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
It will be the 12th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description (opens in a new tab). Among the booster’s 11 other missions were Crew-1 and Crew-2, SpaceX’s first operational astronaut flights to the International Space Station for NASA.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage, meanwhile, will continue to soar toward low Earth orbit, eventually deploying the Starlink satellites there about 15.5 minutes after liftoff.
Thursday’s planned mission comes a few days after another Starlink launch: A Falcon 9 stowed 21 Starlink “V2 mini” satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday night (Feb. 27).
The V2 mini is a next-generation variant that is more capable than older Starlink spacecraft, such as the 51 satellites coming up on Thursday. And the V2 minis are bigger than their predecessors too; they’re small only compared to standard V2s, future satellites designed to launch aboard SpaceX’s giant Starship Mars rocket, which is still under development.
SpaceX has already launched more than 4,000 Starlink satellites (opens in a new tab) to orbit, but the megaconstellation will continue to grow far into the future. Elon Musk’s company has permission to launch 12,000 spacecraft and has applied for approval to deploy another 30,000 as well.
The two Starlink missions are part of a busy week for SpaceX, given that it is also working to send Crew-6 toward the space station for NASA at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Crew-6 was originally scheduled to fly early Monday, but that attempt was scrubbed late in the countdown due to a problem with the ground system. Forecasted bad weather pushed the next attempt to Thursday.
Thursday’s Starlink launch from Vandenberg was also scheduled to fly on Monday, but SpaceX pushed it back due to weather issues. If all had gone according to the original plan, the company would have launched three orbital missions in a single day.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12:25 PM EST on February 28 with the new launch date of March 1 for the Starlink mission, then again at 3:15 PM EST on March 1 with the new target date of March 2.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there (opens in a 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 a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or Facebook (opens in a new tab).
