SpaceX plans to launch two more Starlink internet satellites today (January 28) in a double-header launch just three hours apart.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink spacecraft will arrive at NASA’s Kennedy, Florida location during a three-and-a-half hour window starting today at 6:15 p.m. ET (11:15 GMT). It will be launched from the Space Center (KSC).
Another Falcon 9 will arrive in Vandenberg, California, during a nearly four-hour window starting today at 9:16pm ET (6:16pm local time, 6:16pm GMT on January 29). An additional 22 Starlink aircraft are scheduled to take to the skies from the Space Force base.
Both launches can be viewed through the SpaceX account at X (formerly Twitter). In either case, interviews will begin approximately 5 minutes before the counter opens.
Related: Starlink satellite train: how to see and track it in the night sky
For both launches today, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about eight and a half minutes after liftoff and land on a SpaceX drone ship deployed at sea.
According to SpaceX, this will be the 18th booster launch and landing from KSC and the ninth booster launch from Vandenberg. The company’s reuse record, with 19 launches, was set by the Falcon 9 just last month.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 upper stage is scheduled to deploy Starlink batches into low Earth orbit a little more than an hour after each launch today.
Today’s launches are already the eighth and ninth of the year for SpaceX, which has said it is targeting 144 orbital missions in 2024.
In keeping with its ambitious plans, another SpaceX mission is just around the corner. Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch Northrop Grumman’s robotic transport ship Cygnus to the International Space Station on Tuesday (January 30).
Today’s Starlink doubleheader comes on a solemn anniversary. On January 28, 1986, NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated less than two minutes after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.