SpaceX plans to launch another batch of Starlink Internet satellites into orbit on Saturday night (August 26), and you can watch it live.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 9:05 p.m. EDT Saturday from Space Force Station Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch brings the total number of Starlink satellites launched to date to over 5,000, according to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell. (totalling Currently 4,983. )
Courtesy of SpaceX, you can watch the launch live on Space.com. Or you can see it directly. via company. The interview is scheduled to begin approximately five minutes before launch.
Related: Starlink Satellite Train: How to See and Track It in the Night Sky
If all goes according to plan, the first stage of Falcon 9 will return to Earth on Saturday. It will land on SpaceX’s drone ship about 8.5 minutes after launch. Please read the instructions.
It will be the third time the booster has been launched and landed, officials said. SpaceX mission description.
The Falcon 9 upper stage will continue to fly, eventually deploying 22 Starlink satellites into low earth orbit (LEO) about 65 minutes after launch.
Saturday’s Starlink launch follows another SpaceX mission from Florida’s Space Coast. The company aims to launch a four-man Crew 7 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station early Saturday morning. Crew-7 was scheduled to take off on Friday (August 25) morning, but SpaceX delayed it by 24 hours to conduct further analysis.
Although the number of Starlink satellites is 5,000, that number is likely to increase far into the future. SpaceX has received permission to deploy 12,000 Starlink spacecraft to LEO, and has applied for permission to add about 30,000 more.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with a new launch date of August 26th. SpaceX has set Starlink’s launch date for August 25th.