SpaceX is about to launch 20 extra of its Starlink web satellites from California early Monday morning (Nov. 18).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft, together with 13 with direct-to-cell functionality, is scheduled to carry off from Vandenberg Area Drive Base throughout a four-hour window that opens at 12:47 a.m. EST (0447 GMT; 9:47 p.m. native California time on Nov. 13).
SpaceX will livestream the motion through its X account, starting about 5 minutes earlier than liftoff.
If all goes in accordance with plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth for a vertical landing about eight minutes after liftoff, touchdown on the droneship “Of Course I Nonetheless Love You” within the Pacific Ocean.
It is going to be the twentieth launch and touchdown for this specific booster, in accordance with a SpaceX mission description. Twelve of its 19 flights thus far have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s higher stage will proceed hauling the Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), the place they are going to be deployed about 62 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has launched greater than 100 Falcon 9 missions in 2024, about two-thirds of them dedicated to constructing out the Starlink community.
The megaconstellation at the moment consists of greater than 6,600 lively spacecraft, according to satellite tv for pc tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, 283 of that are direct-to-cell succesful.
