SpaceX is poised to launch one other batch of its Starlink web satellites to orbit.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 22 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to elevate off from California’s Vandenberg Area Power Base on Friday (Dec. 8) throughout a roughly two-hour window that opens at 3:03 a.m. EST (0803 GMT; 12:03 a.m. native California time).
You may watch the motion through SpaceX’s account on X (previously often called Twitter), starting about 5 minutes earlier than the opening of the launch window.
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The Falcon 9’s first stage will come again to Earth for a vertical touchdown about 8.5 minutes after launch, if all goes in keeping with plan. It is going to contact down on the droneship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You,” which will probably be stationed within the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
It is going to be the thirteenth launch and touchdown for this specific booster, in keeping with a SpaceX mission description. Six of its 12 earlier flights have been Starlink missions.
The 22 Starlink satellites, in the meantime, will deploy from the Falcon 9’s higher stage into low Earth orbit about 62.5 minutes after liftoff.
Friday morning’s launch would be the 91st orbital mission of 2023 for SpaceX, extending the corporate’s single-year document. The earlier mark, 61 launches, was set in 2022.
